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Some Incentives to Right 
Living 


BY 


RIGHT REV. ALEXANDER JOSEPH McGAVICK. D. D. 

ft 

Titular Bishop of Marcopoli* 



PUBUSHERS: 

THE M. H. WILTZIUS COMPANY 


£>x 2.350 


I most lovingly dedicate this booh to the memory of 
my mother, Catherine McGavich, whose saintly life was 
as a bright light, showing forth the beauty and worth of 
good deeds and the blessings of noble living. 

The Author. 


©batat. 

Henry B. Ries, 

Censor Librorum. 


^Imprimatur. 

+ Sebastianus Gebhardus, 

Archiepiscopus Milwauchiensis. 


Copyright 1909 by A. J. McGavick. 


LIBRARY Of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

MAY 24 1903 

Copyrtant tnlry - 

11,1*0? 

vwww A XXe, No, 

la. 3 6.3 H 3 

OX-PI (.4. 







“It is harder work to resist vices and pas¬ 
sions, than to toil in bodily labors. 

He that avoideth not small faults, by little 
and little falleth into greater. 

Thou wilt always rejoice in the evening, if 
thou have spent the day profitably. 

Be watchful over thyself, stir up thyself, ad¬ 
monish thyself, and whatever becomes of others 
neglect not thyself. 

The more violence thou usest against thyself, 
the greater shall by thy profiting.” 


—Imitation of Christ. 


ENERALLY speaking, a man is no more 
and no less than what he does. His char¬ 
acter and worth are reflected in his conduct. 
Thoughts, words and deeds are the fruit of life, 
and the tree is known by its fruit. If we would 
be worthy, we must think and act worthily. Ho 
influence affects conduct so directly and power¬ 
fully as religion. Erom the beginning religion 
has been the great uplifting force in both the 
individual and society. Its light has illumined 
the way, and its helps have supplemented hu¬ 
man strength. True religion holds out to man 
a lofty destiny, with rewards for right doing 
far beyond any finite worth. It unveils an all- 
seeing eye in the heavens and hangs a crown 
from every star. 

These pages are a collection of addresses and 
sermons, delivered on various occasions, but all 
dealing with some phase of the moral improve¬ 
ment of the individual. They are published in 
the hope that they may be helpful, in even the 
smallest measure, to those who are struggling 


to rise up through the aid of religion to the 
Christian ideal of conduct. To some such souls, 
they may give a little light, a little courage, a 
little strength. We all need the help of one an¬ 
other, and it is our duty to render such help 
when we can, however trifling it may be. That 
is the thought I have in mind in the publication 
of this book. I should feel happy to know that 
I had been some help to some one in life’s hard 
struggle. 

A. J. M. 

Holy Angels Church, Chicago. 

March 19, 1909. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I A Man’s Worth. 7 

II Striving to Become Better. 12 

III Intemperance . 25 

IV Living Outside Ourselves. 40 

V Christian Equality . 50 

VI The Courage to Do Right. 66 

VII Christ in the World. 77 

VIII Circumstance and Will. 92 

IX What the Flower Teaches. 101 

X The Sinless Christ. 116 

XI Happiness in His Love. 131 

XII The Poor not Inferior. 142 

XIII Heavenly Treasures. 152 

XIV The Faces of the Dead. 169 

XV Victory . 181 

XVI The Great Reward. 192 


















A MAN’S WORTH. 


^ OLD usually lies deep in the earth and any 
surface indications of it are most uncer¬ 
tain and unreliable. It is the same with true 
worth in men. Outward appearances give no 
clue to it. You cannot judge men by the cloth¬ 
ing they wear, nor by the magnificence of their 
homes, nor by the culture in their voice and 
bearing, nor by their success in business, nor 
by the amount of their possessions. 

A man’s worth is within him. It is in his 
mind and heart. It is in his sympathies, his 
loves, his motives, his aims and ambitions. It 
is in the truth of his words, in the nobility of 
his thoughts, in the rectitude of his conduct. It 
lies in his courageous obedience to conscience, 
doing always that which he knows to be right 
rather than that which seems expedient and 
profitable, spurning self-interest, and pleasure, 
and comfort, when these things stand between 


8 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


him and his known duty. It lies especially in 
his faith in God, his fear of God’s judgments, 
and his sense of responsibility to God. 

We are prone to exaggerate the material, to 
judge one another by purely material standards, 
and to bestow homage and honor according to 
these standards. We honor the victorious gen¬ 
eral, the great statesman, the great scholar. 
We honor especially the man of wealth, the 
man with flaunting millions. Fortune or fame 
is ever sure to catch the eye of the multitude 
and to call forth praise and admiration. Our 
heroes are material, our gods are made of stone. 

Children grow up imbued with these senti¬ 
ments. Their ruling thought is to become 
great materially. They see the popular idols, 
they hear the cheering of the crowd, and in their 
young minds an ambition is developed to be¬ 
come some day the object of similar homage. 
They begin to dream of future fame, and to 
plan and scheme for the realization of their 
dreams. Their thoughts are about doing things 
and having much, seldom about being them¬ 
selves noble and worthy. The prevailing sys¬ 
tem of education emphasizes these notions by 
its complete elimination of moral training. The 


A MAN’S WORTH. 


9 


beauty and worth of right doing are as a closed 
book to the child. As the children of to-day 
are the men and women of to-morrow, these 
false notions are thus perpetuated and the 
world goes on worshiping its false gods. 

This is most pernicious and corrupting. It 
is as ruinous in its effect as it is wrong in prin¬ 
ciple. You cannot expect wholesome life when 
there is poison in life’s fountains. 

Let us hold firmly to the truth that the truly 
great man is the truly good man, that it is bet¬ 
ter to be honest than to be rich, that it is better 
to be pure and temperate than to sit in high 
places and receive applause, that it is better to 
speak the truth when the truth hurts than to 
conquer a city. We show greater strength in 
restraining ourselves than in overcoming others. 
There is more courage in forgiving an injury 
than in facing the perils of the battlefield. I 
am not without admiration for the man who 
risks his life for his country, but I admire more 
the man who is willing to live in poverty and 
want rather than take a farthing that is not 
his own. There is no war so bitter or so hard 
to wage as warring against one’s self,—over¬ 
coming, restraining, enchaining one’s self. It 


10 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


is like self-immolation, like self-crucifixion. Yet 
it is never narrowing, nor confining, nor de¬ 
structive in its effects, but leads invariably to 
larger and truer life, to more perfect manhood 
and greater strength of soul. Out of the stress 
and trial of self-conquest comes a better self, 
more beautiful and more admirable than be¬ 
fore, as the blooming, fragrant flower comes 
forth from the lowly seed. 

“Give me the man who is not passion’s 
slave,” says the prince of poets, “and I will 
wear him in my heart’s core, aye in my very 
heart of hearts.” 

Let us honor the good man. Let us applaud 
and praise the man who loves and fears God, 
who keeps his life unblemished, who is willing 
to suffer pain rather than do evil, who is just 
and fair and merciful and kind. Let us honor 
that man, no matter what his material sur¬ 
roundings, no matter whether he lives in a 
palace or a hovel. Let us admire and love such 
a man. Let us go forth to meet him, and sing 
his praises, and shout his name. 

These sentiments are Christian, and we 
should lay them to our hearts and be guided by 
them. We should not hold them merely as 


A MAN’S WORTH. 


11 


vague convictions in our minds, but should 
make them the basis of our conduct by thinking 
and acting and living according to them. We 
want less outward splendor and more of the 
beauty of true and honest living. We want 
good lives rather than great achievements or 
great fortunes. We want men who are not 
merely gilt with gold, but are solid gold to the 
core of the heart. We want them, not merely 
for the glory of God and the good of the Church, 
but for the welfare of our country and in the 
interest of society. We cannot progress as a 
nation, we cannot even live in peace and har¬ 
mony together, unless we cease making a hero 
of the mere child of fortune. We must give 
up the worship of what is material and return 
to the simple worship of the true and the good. 
We must make the good man our hero, and then 
shall our ideals be correct and praiseworthy, 
and following them and being guided by them, 
we shall promote both the public and our own 
private welfare, and shall find and enjoy the 
very best there is in life. 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 


TV/f ORAL excellence is an end towards which 
everyone should constantly strive. We 
should strive to be better to-day than yesterday, 
and better to-morrow than to-day. That duty 
presses upon us always. No circumstances nor 
conditions of life can excuse us from its obli¬ 
gations. Age does not excuse us, nor poverty, 
nor wealth, nor sickness, nor care. Only death, 
which removes all burdens, removes it. 

We are all imperfect creatures. Our human 
nature was tainted away back in its origin. A 
stream purifies itself as it advances, hut human 
nature in its long course down the ages has not 
purified itself. We are horn with the elements 
of evil in us. As we grow up and mingle with 
people, taking part in the affairs of the world, 
these perverse elements develop. They color 
our thoughts, and influence our conduct. Often 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 


13 


they turn the whole course of our life into new 
channels. They may even take such absolute 
possession of us, that we are no longer our own 
masters. Like imperious tyrants, they com¬ 
mand and we obey. Our duty is to resist such 
tendencies. We should subdue and destroy 
them as we would a wild beast that is seeking 
our life. We should uproot them as poisonous 
growths, and in their place we should plant the 
seeds of noble, righteous conduct, seeds which 
will grow into beautiful flowers and fill the 
world with sweetness. 

To do that, we must be intensely in earnest 
and must put forth the most persistent efforts. 
Without such efforts improvement is impossible. 
In fact, without such efforts you will not merely 
remain as you are, but will become worse than 
you are. He who pushes not forward, will go 
backward. Suppose you are pulling a boat up 
a stream. With every stroke of the oars the 
boat is impelled forward. But drop the oars, 
fold your arms and gaze listlessly at the cur¬ 
rent sweeping and eddying around you. The 
boat is apparently motionless, it seems to stand 
still, yet all the while the rocks and trees on 
the shore are hurrying past you, and you are 


14 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


drifting rapidly downward. So with human 
nature. Not to advance is to recede. Not to 
move forward is to move backward. 

Human nature when left to itself always 
tends to go backward. It will not float like a 
log, it sinks like a stone. The more we see of 
evil the less hideous it appears. In time it 
even grows beautiful to our disordered eyes. 
Familiarity with evil does not breed contempt, 
it breeds affection. Like the bird and the ser¬ 
pent, once we come within the range of its in¬ 
fluence, it has an attraction for us. Every time 
we fall we are weaker to rise and more prone to 
fall again. Every time we yield to a tempta¬ 
tion, we invite it to come back, and after yield¬ 
ing many times, if it comes not back, we go out 
to seek it. That is the way human nature is 
constituted. It has a tendency to go backward, 
and if we desire to push it forward, if we desire 
to elevate and perfect it, earnest, persevering, 
persistent effort is an absolute necessity. 

Half efforts are of no avail. To half try is 
practically to surrender. To half try is to throw 
up a frail breastwork for appearance sake, but 
never to fire a shot. When the heart half tries, 
it merely delays a little before giving in to a 


STBIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 15 

temptation. It does not refuse, it simply de¬ 
lays. It does not say, “W’; it says, “after 
awhile.” It pretends to resist, but the resist¬ 
ance has no vigor, no firmness, no sincerity. It 
is a resistance which in its weakness hears no 
proportion to the strength of the temptation, 
and at best accomplishes no more than to put 
back for the moment the tempter’s triumph. 
A heart, on the other hand, that is truly in earn¬ 
est gives no quarters to a temptation and asks 
none. When confronted by evil it instantly 
summons all its strength and presents an oppo¬ 
sition which nothing can break down. Like a 
rock in the waves, like an oak in the storm, it 
stands there defiant of the forces arrayed 
against it. Like Christ in the desert, it rises 
up in its majesty and exclaims, “Begone, Sa¬ 
tan.” That is the way the heart meets a temp¬ 
tation when it is in earnest and when it is not 
courting defeat, but is desirous of victory. 

Yet in our efforts to improve we are not to 
rely entirely on our own strength. We are not 
to fight as if depending wholly upon ourselves. 
We seem indeed to be alone in these struggles, 
alone like a single soldier among his enemies, 
but we are not. The king of Syria once sent a 


16 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


great army to take prisoner the prophet Eliseus 
who was in Dothan. When the servant of the 
prophet saw the mighty army gathered about 
the city, he said: “Alas, alas, my lord, what 
shall we do?” “Fear not,” said Eliseus, “for 
there are more with us than with them.” Then 
the prophet prayed and immediately the heav¬ 
ens were filled with horses and chariots of fire. 
Like the prophet, we are not alone in our strug¬ 
gles with evil. There are more with us than 
against us. 

God is with us, and He is better to us than 
any kindred or friend. Those who are bound 
to us by the closest ties that love can weave 
often forsake us, but God never forsakes even 
the least of us. We never call to Him but He 
answers. We may wander far away from Him, 
but never so far that our cry will not reach 
Him. He seems to be always listening for the 
cry of distressed and wandering souls. 

Our Guardian Angel is with us. He was 
placed over us at our birth as our protector. 
He carries a light before us. He leads us by 
the right path and warns us of every pitfall and 
stone of stumbling. 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 


17 


The Saints are with us and the whole multi¬ 
tude of heaven’s angels. These blessed spirits 
hover near us and their fervent invocations are 
ever rising up in our behalf. 

Dear ones dead are with us, dear ones whom 
long ago we followed to the cemetery, and by 
whose graves we have often knelt and poured 
out bitter tears. They are with us. Their dead 
eyes like the silent stars are ever looking down 
upon us, and they light up with joy when we 
resist evil and do good, just as they show pain 
and bitter grief when we do aught that is wrong. 
The dead never forget us. They applaud every 
victory we win, and they weep over our falls. 
They praise us and encourage us, they chide 
and rebuke us, according as we do well or ill. 

So we are not alone in these struggles with 
evil. The heavens are full of horses and char¬ 
iots of fire. They that are with us are more 
than they that are against us. 

Look at all the means of divine help which 
God has left us. There are the Sacraments 
which are as so many rivers of life flowing 
down from the Savior’s open heart on the cross. 
From these sacred streams we drink in a divine 
energy which nothing can resist. There is also 


18 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


the holy Sacrifice of the Altar wherein the Lord 
Jesus Christ pleads for us with His Heavenly 
Lather. He pleads for us in the name of every 
drop of blood He shed, in the name of every 
thorn that pierced His temples, and of every 
scourge that cut His flesh. He pleads for us 
in the name of Bethlehem, in the name of 
Gethsemani, and in the name of Calvary. Be¬ 
sides the Sacraments and the holy Sacrifice of 
the Altar, there is prayer which is a key to 
every grace we need, or which is rather, we 
might say, a trumpet by which we can summon 
in an instant to our aid all the hosts of heaven. 
Oh no, we are not alone in these struggles. The 
heavens are full of horses and chariots of fire. 
They that are with us are more than they that 
are against us. 

But sometimes though we strive hard to im¬ 
prove, putting forth our most earnest efforts, 
and praying with great constancy, still little or 
no advance is made. Frequently it happens 
that when we are most sanguine we are least 
successful. What are we to do under such cir¬ 
cumstances? For example, you have made up 
your mind not to become angry. You see that 
no good comes from it, rather injury to your- 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 19 

self and to others, and offense to Almighty God. 
Well, you will not be angry any more. You 
will always be pleasant and agreeable. You 
will never utter a cross, spiteful word. Not 
even a frown will ever ruffle your brow. You 
will go your way henceforth just like a beam of 
sunlight or like a laughing brook. Very good 
indeed. But how long will you persevere ? 
Possibly not for a day, possibly not for an hour. 
Some vexatious, troublesome thing occurs, and 
instantly the brow is knit, the blood is up, and 
the dead passion like a dead volcano leaps to 
life. 

Again, you have resolved to correct your 
impatience. You have thought of the patience 
of God, how He bears with the sins of men, 
how He permits sinners to live and enjoy life 
when He might strike them down in an instant, 
silencing forever their blaspheming tongues 
and freezing their burning, lustful hearts. You 
have thought of the patience of Christ, how 
much He suffered, yet never complained. The 
Apostles desert Him, yet He does not rebuke 
them. The soldiers strike Him, yet He strikes 
not back. They insult Him, yet He is silent. 
They mock Him on the cross, but instead of 


20 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


cursing, He blesses them. You have thought of 
these things and you say, “I too will be patient. 
I will carry my burden, whatever it may be, 
and will not complain.” But then new sorrows 
come, new pains are rankling in your breast, 
new clouds darken and oppress you, and as if 
totally oblivious of yesterday’s resolve, you are 
to-day comparing your conditions with that of 
others and wondering why you are singled out 
for every burning arrow of misfortune. 

Such is the history of many good resolves in 
every life. They are like houses built on sand 
and are easily swept away by the floods of pas¬ 
sion. You say to yourself, ‘‘Henceforth I will 
be kind and good to those around me. I will 
take advantage of every opportunity that comes 
to help others. I will even seek out such oppor¬ 
tunities. I will be charitable. I will love the 
poor and help them. I will defend my neigh¬ 
bor rather than defame him. I will be his ad¬ 
vocate and not his prosecutor. I will not be 
envious or jealous. I will not be downcast 
when others are prosperous. I will not be 
proud. Even though I be well dressed or hav« 
some learning or occupy a position of promi¬ 
nence, I will remember that we are all equal be- 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 


21 


fore God, and that in the grave the lowest peas¬ 
ant will lie down with the princes of the earth. 
I will not be profane. I will love and respect 
the holy name of God. I will not curse my 
fellowmen, as I hope some day to escape the 
eternal curse of God.” All this you will do, but 
when you kneel to examine your conscience, you 
find you have not done the things you would. 
Thus does many a noble effort come to naught. 
“We hope, we resolve, we pray, we trust, 

When the morning calls us to life and light, 

But our hearts grow weary, and e’er the night 
Our lives are trailing in the sordid dust.” 

What are we to do under these circum¬ 
stances ? There is just one thing to do, and no 
man can advise anything else. No angel from 
heaven can advise anything else. The one thing 
to do is to try again. 

Do not he discouraged. Nothing good is 
easily gotten. See how men toil for wealth. No 
labor is too great, no hardship too severe, no 
danger too threatening to deter them from car¬ 
rying out plans which they fancy will lead to 
gain. Men are daily coining their life blood 
into gold. See the student in quest of knowl¬ 
edge. He spends many weary years in school 
and college. His eye is dimmed and his form 


22 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


bent from study. He is meeting constantly 
with difficulties. Hark regions which no mind 
has yet explored stretch before him, yet noth¬ 
ing daunted, he journeys on. See the devotee 
at the shrine of fame. By every device he woes 
the proud goddess. She spurns him, but he 
presses his suit. She scorns him, but he still 
looks up to her with hope. 

How, virtue or goodness, in its varied forms, 
is better than fame; it is better than knowledge; 
it is better than gold; and if men persevere 
amid many defeats in search of these things, 
with much greater reason should we persevere 
in quest of that best treasure which earth con¬ 
tains, that gem most precious in the sight of 
God, a pure and unstained conscience. 

Ho not, therefore, be discouraged. Ho not 
give yourself up to despair. Hespair never ac¬ 
complished anything. It never won a battle. 
It never sowed a seed or reaped a harvest. 
Hespair does not merely block the wheels of 
progress, it ties them with an iron chain. In¬ 
stead of being discouraged, let every failure 
only intensify your determination to succeed. 
Then will failure be your servant. It will be 
made to carry for you the lamp of hope. 


STRIVING TO BECOME BETTER. 23 

God is here our great ideal. To Him let us 
look up and after Him let us pattern our lives. 
He made us to His image; let us draw that 
image out. It is hidden beneath the accumula¬ 
tions of thoughtlessness and perversity. It is 
buried beneath the ruins of sin. Let us clear 
away all the hideous debris, and let us make the 
divine image shine forth. 

That is your great life work. All else that 
you may do is paltry and trifling compared with 
that. If that work be neglected, your life is 
being spent in vain. In vain are health and 
strength given to you. In vain is length of days 
given to you. In vain does the sun shine for 
you and the seasons come and go. Vain is 
friendship, vain is love, vain are all your am¬ 
bitions and hopes if that work be neglected. 

When Sir Walter Scott lay at the point of 
death he called his friend and kinsman to him 
and said: “Lockart, be a good man. Be vir¬ 
tuous, be religious, be a good man. Nothing 
else will give you any comfort when you come 
to lie here.” Sir Walter Scott had wealth and 
fame and friends, he had practically all of 
this world’s goods that the heart could crave, 
yet in the end he felt, as all true men must feel, 


24 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


that the best thing one can have is a good life. 
Everything else is tinsel and veneer, but a 
good life is solid gold. 


INTEMPERANCE. 


AS an agency of evil in the life of man, in¬ 
temperance holds a conspicuous place. All 
through history it has caused incalculable ruin. 
The advance of civilization and the growth of 
knowledge have not retarded appreciably its 
malign operations. It is not confined to any 
particular people or country, but exists in a 
more or less degree everywhere. Ho one can 
live in the world and escape wholly its blight¬ 
ing influence, for not only are those contam¬ 
inated and injured who are themselves intem¬ 
perate, but the innocent likewise are contam¬ 
inated and made to suffer pain, privation and 
misery through its effects upon those near to 
them, and through its general effects on the 
race. The evil, therefore, is universal and con¬ 
cerns everybody. 

Alcohol is not a food as some foolish dream¬ 
ers would have us believe, neither is it a med- 


26 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


icine,—it is a poison. It has been called “aqua 
vitse,” water of life; it is the water of death. 
That it is a poison to both body and brain is a 
truth so evident and plain that anybody can 
understand it. It is an enemy to the human 
system, an enemy not merely to its peace and 
happiness, but to its very life, a murderous 
enemy, and the human system resists it as 
such. Everything in nature resists that which 
would destroy it. Many flowers open their 
petals to the dew, but close them to excessive 
sunlight. Animals put on a heavier coat of fur 
in winter to protect them from the cold. The 
plumage of birds frequently tabes the same hue 
as the forest leaves about them, as if to hide 
them from the hunter. All this is according to 
a law of nature, which we might call the law 
of self-preservation. Through a natural instinct 
everything tends to preserve and perpetuate its 
own life by guarding itself against all forces 
of destruction. The human system knows what 
is good for it and what is injurious, what will 
strengthen its life and what will destroy it. It 
knows a food from a poison. It craves for food 
and receives it with cheerfulness and satisfac- 


INTEMPERANCE. 


27 


tion, but it repels a poison by every means in 
its power. 

Let us see bow tbe human system acts to¬ 
wards alcohol. Apply alcohol to the skin and 
what is the result ? The pores are instantly 
closed and remain closed until the liquid evap¬ 
orates or is cast off. In olden times when an 
enemy appeared before the city, the gates were 
closed. That was the chief means of defense. 
In the same manner does the human system 
close the pores of the skin against alcohol. 

Again, take alcohol into the stomach and 
what follows ? A temporary exhilaration is 
experienced. There is increased energy felt in 
the nerves and brain. The ignorant mistake 
that for a certain addition to their natural 
strength, coming from the alcohol they have 
imbibed; but the truth is that the system, in 
accordance with the law of self-preservation, is 
merely roused to unusual activity in an effort 
to repel what is known to be injurious to it. 
The enemy is upon it, it has gained an entrance, 
and a supreme effort is being made to cast it 
forth. What tremendous excitement, what 
rushing and hurrying would take place in this 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


city if a hostile army suddenly appeared in our 
midst! Every activity and energy would be 
aroused to resist the invader. That is precisely 
what transpires in the human system when 
alcohol is introduced into it. The struggle to 
overcome and eject it begins instantaneously. 
It is a bitter struggle and is prosecuted with 
terrible persistence. It means life or death. 

The fact is plain and evident that the human 
system does not want alcohol. It opposes it, 
fights it, struggles against it, and submits to its 
presence only under absolute compulsion. The 
human system knows itself; it knows what is 
necessary or helpful to its growth and develop¬ 
ment ; and it knows that alcohol has nothing in 
it with which to satisfy any need; that on the 
contrary it is positively harmful and destruc¬ 
tive. It knows that ruin and death go with 
alcohol, and hence its unalterable opposition to 
it. For that reason I say that alcohol is a poi¬ 
son. To call it by any other name is to juggle 
with words or to betray sheer ignorance. 

From every struggle with alcohol the human 
system comes forth greatly weakened and ex¬ 
hausted. It has less vigor and energy. Its 
vitality is reduced. This is the explanation of 


INTEMPERANCE. 


29 


a certain depression or lassitude which always 
follows the exhilarations caused by strong 
drink. The system is tired and worn out. It 
is like a soldier after a hard battle. Wounds 
and blood are upon it. Besides it is never but 
partly victorious. The enemy is never wholly 
cast out; part of its forces always remain with¬ 
in, and through them the system is permanently 
and irretrievably impaired. It resists vigor¬ 
ously the first intrusions, but, through the cor¬ 
rupting influence which alcohol exerts, this re¬ 
sistance gradually diminishes. Each intrusion 
draws forth less and less opposition till at last 
the fight is abandoned. Nothing fights forever. 
Everything tires of a never-ending struggle. 
Thus the human system grows weary under the 
long strain and finally gives up. It has not the 
strength or the spirit to continue the fight. It 
is overcome, defeated, conquered. It is a pris¬ 
oner in chains, an abject slave. 

A person in such condition is a most pitiable 
spectacle. We still call him a man, but he has 
lost all that makes manhood beautiful, honored 
and respected. He has not even the excuse that 
he was driven to ruin by any outside forces. 


30 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


No, he is the architect of his own ruin; he is a 
self-made wreck. 

The person who puts much alcohol into his 
system is courting death. Alcohol kills as sure¬ 
ly as the bullet or the dagger. But we hear of 
very few who die directly of alcohol. That is 
true, but despite the fact that they are not heard 
of, its victims are countless. There is a certain 
cunning in its methods which needs explana¬ 
tion. It works secretly and in the dark. Its 
blood-stained hand is seldom seen. It knows 
the ills that human flesh is heir to and allies 
itself with them. It prepares the way and opens 
the door for them. A corpse in a boat attracts 
sharks. They gather round in great numbers, 
their dark, fierce forms rising often to the sur¬ 
face of the water and into plain view. They 
are watching and waiting for an opportunity 
to satisfy their hunger. In the same way do 
diseases follow a rum-soaked body. They seem 
to feel that it belongs to them, and sooner or 
later it will be theirs. Alcohol makes ready the 
feast and invites them to partake of it. It 
wrecks the victim and then calls upon disease 
to finish the work. Such deaths are usually 


INTEMPERANCE. 


31 


credited to this or that disease, but the real 
destroyer is alcohol. 

Of all classes of people, the intemperate are 
the most liable to disease and the least able to 
resist it. Hard drinkers are the first to be at¬ 
tacked and the first to fall. The odds are al¬ 
ways against them. For them the dice are 
loaded. 

There are many diseases which are caused 
directly by alcohol, and a vast number of others, 
some of them most deadly, to which alcohol is a 
powerful predisposing agency. To enumerate 
these diseases would be a tedious task. It is 
plain, however, that the common dangers to life 
are materially multiplied by the use of alcohol, 
and that life’s chances grow less and less ac¬ 
cording as we give ourselves over more and 
more to alcoholic stimulants. Once a person 
begins to indulge excessively, he is surely 
marked for an untimely death. 

The effects of alcohol on the mind are as 
serious as on the body. It impairs the mind 
through the body. The mind uses the brain in 
all its activities, and whatever injures the brain 
injures the mind. How the moment alcohol 
enters the body it attacks the brain; it reaches 


32 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


the brain almost as quickly as it reaches the 
stomach. There is a momentary display of 
energy as the brain struggles to save itself. It 
is the energy of alarm and distress. But de¬ 
spite all efforts of the brain to protect itself, it 
cannot ward off the threatening injury and soon 
becomes partially stupefied or paralyzed. From 
this it will recover in a measure, but its re¬ 
covery is never complete. Its sensitive mechan¬ 
ism has been impaired and it is never entirely 
the same again. It is like a flower that has 
received the first touch of frost. 

Let this ordeal be repeated often and the 
brain will be materially enfeebled and de¬ 
graded. It will lose its keenness, its brilliancy, 
its vigor. It will suffer especially in its higher 
and more delicate faculties. The capacity to 
entertain pure, noble, generous sentiments is 
lessened. On the other hand the lower, vulgar 
powers seem in some way augmented. The man 
in us is extinguished and the animal developed. 
Love, mercy, justice, kindness, charity, sym¬ 
pathy,—these alcohol destroys; but anger, cru¬ 
elty, revenge, envy, hatred and other low im¬ 
pulses receive new life from it. 


INTEMPERANCE. 


33 


The three noblest powers of the mind are 
reason, conscience and will. All three are viti¬ 
ated by alcohol. Under its destroying influence 
reason is not merely temporarily but often per¬ 
manently dethroned. Alcohol leads ultimately 
to insanity, and a large percentage of the insane 
have been reduced to that condition through it. 
Every asylum of the insane preaches temper¬ 
ance with an eloquence which no words of mine 
or of any man can possess. The more alcohol, 
the less reason; and every drop of the poison 
counts for something. 

Conscience is the power of the mind by 
which we determine right from wrong. In 
conduct it is always our guide. It is the lamp 
by which we are enabled to walk aright. In 
proportion as men drink, they lose this beautiful 
and all important faculty. It is palsied or 
benumbed, and its once clear and fearless voice 
becomes uncertain or false. Right and wrong 
to them have little meaning. They do what is 
convenient. They follow blindly their depraved 
instincts. That is why God has declared that 
the drunkard shall not enter the kingdom of 
heaven. How can one expect to enter heaven 


34 SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 

when he has deliberately put out the only light 
which can guide him there? 

The same effects are produced on the will 
as on the conscience. A strong will is neces¬ 
sary to any man who would lead an upright life. 
In the face of temptation the will is the only 
force upon which we can rely for victory. As 
the intemperate are without conscience, so are 
they without strong will power. Alcohol saps 
the strength of the will and leaves it listless and 
wavering. It has no energy to stand up and 
pursue undeviatingly its own course. It offers 
no resistance to anything; it just floats with 
the current. It is a rudderless ship, the sport 
of winds and waves. A person in a dream 
often seems falling over a great precipice with 
absolutely no power to stop or save himself. 
That represents the condition of the drunkard, 
who is sweeping down into the awful gulf of 
ruin and totally unable to stop. His will is 
gone. He cries out that he is going to turn 
back, that he is going to reform, but even as 
he cries he is hurrying along on his downward 
course. A strong will would save him, but that 
he has not. He is like the soldier fighting with¬ 
out sword or gun. 


INTEMPERANCE. 


35 


Thus is the mind robbed by alcohol of its 
glorious powers; it is vitiated, perverted, 
ruined. Its reason is clouded if not entirely 
subverted, its conscience seared and its will 
emasculated. It is a wreck not less pitiful than 
the wreck of the body. 

Much of the poverty in the world is the re¬ 
sult of alcohol. Working men, with or without 
families, can save nothing when addicted to 
drink. Their daily tribute to the saloon robs 
them of anything which they may earn above 
necessary living expenses. Indeed, these ex¬ 
penses are often curtailed for the sake of the 
customary indulgence. As the habit grows they 
lose their employment. Ho man wants a drunk¬ 
ard in his service. With no work and no in¬ 
come the result is manifest. Among the laboring 
classes, pauperism follows the heels of drun¬ 
kenness as the shadow follows the substance. 
Many people become poor through no fault of 
theirs. They have poverty thrust upon them. 
A series of misfortunes may bring want to any 
man’s door. It is safe to say, however, that in¬ 
temperance is more productive of poverty than 
all other causes combined. Where the saloon 
flourishes, poverty must abound. Like crim- 


36 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


inals in procession, those two evils advance with 
locked step. The saloons are so many foci 
whence the contagion of poverty spreads. 

How many homes are blighted and broken 
up by strong drink! The truest happiness in 
this world lives around the family hearth. That 
sacred precinct, swept of its pagan accretions 
by Christ and beautified by grace and truth, is 
the new earthly paradise. Man, having been 
expelled from the first, was led into this by 
Christ. How beautiful is the Christian home, 
where man is king and woman queen, and every 
child a treasure of priceless value, a golden 
chain of love binding father and mother more 
firmly together in their already undissoluble 
union! How many such homes are wrecked by 
liquor, all peace driven from them, and they 
left like barns for beasts rather than dwelling 
places for men! Let liquor go into a home and 
peace will invariably go out, never to return,— 
a demon with a flaming sword standing at the 
gate. As soon as liquor comes over the thres¬ 
hold, the poor wife begins to worry and fret 
and weep. Her days of wedded bliss are gone 
and sorrow is henceforth her portion. She had 
leaned heretofore on her husband, as the vine 


INTEMPERANCE. 


37 


on a strong oak; now she must stand alone. He 
was close to her before in affection and devo¬ 
tion, now a great gulf lies between them, with 
no bridge of love reaching over it. Her chil¬ 
dren draw close to her in fear and she throws 
over them the mantle of her protection, as the 
shepherd shields the sheep from the wolf. Was 
there ever a sadder picture ? The husband who 
should himself he the shepherd, has become the 
wolf, which devours, destroys and scatters the 
sheep of the fold. Domestic happiness and 
drink can no more subsist together than light 
and darkness, than heat and cold. They are as 
antagonistic as two opposite currents. Where 
the one is the other is not. Liquor is a demon 
going about destroying happy homes, filling 
them with harsh words, and hatred, and quar¬ 
rels, and tears. 

Political corruption, like poverty and un¬ 
happiness in the home, is largely the outgrowth 
of saloon influences. If popular government 
ever perishes in this country, its assassin will 
be the saloon. Many eminent men have lately 
expressed a distrust in the wisdom of universal 
suffrage. It is contended that the ballot is a 
dangerous instrument in the hands of ignorant 


38 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


and irresponsible men. I contend, however, 
that political corruption is not traceable in any 
great measure to ignorance or to a want of 
proper qualification in voters, but primarily to 
the saloon. There is no campaign in which the 
saloon does not take an active part, and so deep 
laid are its plans, and so audacious its efforts, 
that it seldom meets with defeat. It stoops to 
every means to attain its purpose. The saloon 
is a plague spot in politics. From it an evil 
influence goes out which taints the air in every 
public office. It is for this reason that the term, 
politician , has become a word of reproach among 
us. It suggests the saloon. The trail of the 
saloon is upon it. 

I have told you now what the effects of in¬ 
temperance are on the body, on the mind, on 
home happiness, and political purity. Ruinous 
and dreadful as they may appear from my 
words, I believe that I have fallen far short of 
the reality. The liquor evil permeates all hu¬ 
man life. It is the seed out of which many 
other evils grow, and is an aggravating circum¬ 
stance to every affliction of mankind. Ho man 
can defend the use of strong drink. It is an 
unmitigated curse. A few years ago a state- 


INTEMPERANCE. 


39 


ment like this could not be made, but with the 
advance of knowledge and a better understand¬ 
ing of the nature and effects of alcohol, I be¬ 
lieve, I voice the judgment of practically all 
intelligent men, when I say that strong drink 
is a curse, pure and simple; a curse to the in¬ 
dividual, a curse to the home, a curse to society, 
a curse to the race. 

But some of you may say, “I am temperate, 
I do not drink to excess, I drink only a little.” 
Well, everybody who takes strong drink is not 
a drunkard, but he is the kind out of which 
drunkards are made. Every drunkard was first 
a moderate drinker. He began with the harm¬ 
less glass. At first liquor with him was a lux¬ 
ury and then a necessity, and then a passion 
which nothing could resist. J3o not begin. That 
is the best course. If you have already begun, 
stop while you have yet the will power to do 
that which you feel is good for you. Soon you 
may be adrift, and strive as you may, battle 
how you will, you will go down and will never 
rise; down to shame, to dishonor, to physical 
and moral ruin, to degradation of mind and 
heart and body, down to the drunkard’s end, 
which is the asylum, the prison, the scaffold, or 
the merciful grave. 


IV. 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 



COMMANDING feature of Christ’s 


character was His devotion to the service 
of others. In His incarnation He offered Him¬ 
self as a victim for the redemption of the human 
race. During His sojourn on earth, He toiled 
and suffered, not for Himself, but for us, that 
our redemption might be accomplished. He 
forgot Himself. He seemed never to have 
adverted to His own comforts and convenience. 
He shunned praise. He despised power. They 
would make Him king, hut He fled away. He 
worked with His hands, but only to earn His 
daily bread; no dreams of wealth ever dis¬ 
turbed His quiet slumbers. He mingled with 
the poor and lowly, and counted it no dishonor 
to be found in the company of sinners. These 
He came to save, and He could not save them 
by shunning them, but rather by mingling with 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 


41 


them. He went among them that He might 
lift them up and make them like Himself. 

In other words, Christ lived outside Him¬ 
self. Just reflect on the meaning of those 
words: living outside one’s self. 

Many people live wholly within themselves. 
Their world is the narrow, little world of self. 
It is bounded on all sides by their own precious 
personality. What an insignificant world it 
is, and how little it would be missed if it sud¬ 
denly dropped out of existence forever! And 
what an uninteresting world ! Ho special charm 
about it, nothing inviting or captivating; often 
indeed the very contrary. Yet that is their 
world and there they live. They never journey 
beyond self; they have no interest beyond self, 
no desire to expand or to enlarge their exist¬ 
ence. They are entirely satisfied with being 
small and cramped and mean. There they live, 
nursing their own little selfish ambitions, plan¬ 
ning and calculating, hut all for self; anxious 
and troubled, hut only about self; toiling and 
striving, but exclusively for self; sad at times 
and discouraged, but only because poor, dear 
self has met with some misfortune. There they 
live; and charity, love, mercy, kindness and 


42 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


even friendship are unknown to them. They 
have never felt the sentiments which these 
words express. Such tender feelings are strange 
to them. Many people live that way. They 
have an altar built in their own breasts, an altar 
dedicated to the god of self, and by that altar 
they kneel and worship. The offerings of greed 
are burnt on it, and the incense of consuming 
pride ascends from it night and day. Such a 
way of living is despicable. No other words 
can fittingly describe it. Better to live in a 
dungeon of stone than to live in the dungeon 
of self. 

Christ’s life was a sublime protest against 
selfishness. With all the strength of His soul. 
He called upon men to deny themselves and live 
for others. 

Selfishness is a relic of barbarism. I would 
go farther and say it is a relic of animalism. 
There is a theory that we are descended from 
the animal. Without approving that theory, I 
affirm that there is something of the animal in 
man. The law of life among animals is the 
survival of the strong. The large ones feed up¬ 
on the small. The cunning and the sly entrap 
and devour the less wary. Walk through the 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 


43 


wild forest and listen to their fierce cries. They 
are fighting over some morsel of food, and the 
weak must he content to go away hungry. The 
same law of strength prevails among men, only 
in a form a trifle less repulsive. It is the same 
savage law in civilized dress. 

Do not men in gainful competition employ 
against one another unfair means? Do they 
not resort to fraud and falsehood ? Do they not 
deceive, misrepresent, cheat and rob ? Do they 
not often take advantage of human necessity 
and force upon their fellowmen bargains which 
under less trying circumstances would be 
scorned? And when a part of the race has by 
such means been crushed into poverty, is there 
any appreciable sympathy for them ? Now and 
then they hear a kind word and feel a helping 
hand, but is the sympathy extended equal to the 
injustice that has been done? Rather is the 
world’s charity equal to its injustice? Weigh 
the two in the balance and see the disparity 
between them. It is the same law of strength 
that subsists among the lower animals, only 
they howl and we use speech, they employ their 
claws and we dastardly schemes which society 


44 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


does not positively prohibit or does not effect¬ 
ively prevent. 

Christ would supplant the law of strength 
with the law of love. He would dethrone in¬ 
justice and give the sceptre and crown to char¬ 
ity. He would lead men away from the flesh 
pots of self, and feed them upon the bread of 
kindness and good will. That is what He 
preached and practiced, and that is what He 
would have us do. 

I affirm that true life, the life that is purest, 
noblest, best, the life that is brightest, sweetest, 
happiest, is such a life as Christ would have us 
lead; that is, a life full of sympathy, full of 
love, full of desire to do good to others; a life, 
in a word, that is lived not so much in self as in 
those around us. I do not mean that we are 
totally to forget legitimate comforts and con¬ 
veniences, to provide against future necessity 
and such like; no, I mean that we should not be 
confined to ourselves alone, that we should feel 
an interest in others’ struggles, an interest in 
others’ sorrows, an interest in others’ hopes, that 
we should look upon those about us as part of 
one great family of which God is the head. 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 


45 


That is what I mean, and that is true life, that 
is real human life. 

Come forth then from the little world of self 
into the broad, bright world which God has 
made. Come forth and mingle with the multi¬ 
tude of men. Try to feel that you are kindred 
to the least of them, that their welfare is in a 
measure yours, that their triumphs are yours, 
their sorrows yours, their joys and hopes yours. 
More than that, try to give of your efforts to 
their service. Strive to help them in any way 
you can; to lift them up when they are fallen, 
to comfort them when they are sad, to encourage 
them when they are despondent, to be a cup of 
strength to them in their great agonies. 

Those who live for self live only partial, 
fragmentary lives. Compare the life of a stone 
with the life of a man. The stone has no con¬ 
scious existence. It merely is. A man is con¬ 
scious of his existence. He acts, thinks, knows, 
reasons. He is free and feels responsibility. 
What a vast difference between these two lives! 
A similar difference lies between the life of a 
selfish and the life of an unselfish man. The 
selfish man is busy always with his own wants, 
and feels joy and sorrow only in those things 


46 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


which affect himself. The unselfish man is 
concerned with the wants of all his fellow mor¬ 
tals, and his heart is in touch with the heart of 
every human being. Any ray of joy anywhere 
is a ray of joy to him; any pang of sorrow any¬ 
where is felt by him. See the difference be¬ 
tween these two lives. “Not one but many lives 
are his who carries the world in his sym¬ 
pathies.” 

The more we put off selfishness, the more 
God-like we become. Think of the life of God. 
Think of Him as the Lord of creation. He not 
only made all things, but He preserves all 
things in being, life and activity. We see the 
energy and power of God in every grain of sand 
and in every star, in every growing flower and 
beast and bird, in every mortal man. It is 
God who moves the planets in their courses. 
The wind and waves obey Him. He disperses 
the clouds and scatters the dew. God is always 
at work. His labors never cease; and He is 
toiling always for others, for you and me. When 
we spend ourselves for others we become like 
Him; we become God-like. 

You see what true life is, real human life. 
It is not a life crusted over with selfishness, but 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 


47 


a life that gives forth like a flower the sweetness 
of charity, mercy, sympathy, love. We have 
one model of perfect human life, and that is 
Christ. He held up the model to us for thirty- 
three years, and told us to go and do as He did. 

Come forth then from the little world of self, 
and do not think that in so doing you will sacri¬ 
fice your happiness. Wherever we journey we 
are searching for happiness. We toil, and sweat, 
and study, and calculate for happiness. We 
are sad and dejected just because happiness 
does not come to us. We see its white wings in 
the distance, and we long to possess it. We 
crave happiness incessantly, and all our time is 
spent in striving to secure it. 

But somehow or other many people are not 
happy. Do you know the reason ? The reason 
is because they seek happiness where it is not. 
“Oh, happiness, how far we flee from thy bright 
paths in search of thee.” Most people cherish 
the delusion that happiness is found in minis¬ 
tering to self, gratifying the whims of self, pil¬ 
ing up riches for self, winning honors for self, 
elevating self to places of power and influence. 
They think that if self is just satisfied, that 
happiness will come, that it must come. That 


48 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


delusion took possession of the race early in its 
existence, and it has clung to us to this day. 
Our first parents thought that they would be 
supremely happy when they ate the fruit of the 
forbidden tree. They ate it and were miserable. 
Blinded by that same delusion, we have sought 
happiness the way they sought it, but the same 
bitter disappointment has invariably been our 
portion. 

No, the only real, lasting happiness there is 
in this world, that which will not fade and per¬ 
ish soon, is such as comes from an approving 
conscience, from doing good. In casting off 
selfishness, then, you are not turning away from 
happiness, but turning toward it. In casting 
off selfishness you are following the voice of 
conscience, you are seeking out good deeds to do, 
and good deeds are the gold by which happiness 
is bought. You cannot buy it with any other 
coin, no matter how much you offer. It is pur¬ 
chased only by kind words and deeds, by acts 
of charity and mercy, by patience, love and 
sympathy. 

Come forth, then, into the great world out¬ 
side of self. Let the heart expand. Let its 
sacred tendrils reach out. Let its strong affec- 


LIVING OUTSIDE OURSELVES. 


49 


tions flow from you, not toward you; let them 
flow out upon others, not in upon self. Self 
love is unnatural. It is like a stream setting 
back from the ocean, like a tree lifting its roots 
into the air. Self love is an inversion of the 
divine order. 

Christ loved all men and did good to all. 
Strive as far as you can, as far as your feeble 
strength will permit, to follow in His footsteps. 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


r I 'HAT all men are essentially equal before 
God is a truth as old as Christianity. 
Christ taught it and the Apostles preached it. 
The Church has always laid special emphasis 
upon it. Before her the lowest has equal im¬ 
portance with the highest, and has the same 
rights and privileges. She has never exalted 
one class above another, nor one nationality 
above another, nor one race above another. 
Black or white, slave or free, king or subject, 
rich or poor, it makes no difference with her. 
The hand of love is reached out the same to the 
one as to the other. 

There is an equality preached to-day by the 
discontented and the false-guided, which would 
overthrow all order, and reduce to ruin the 
whole fabric of civilization; it is the equality 
of socialism and anarchy, an equality which has 
no foundation in truth, and is purely the crea- 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


51 


tion of overheated and distempered minds, and 
the aim of which is to abolish existing institu¬ 
tions and substitute in their place a social order 
that is new and untried in the world and totally 
unsuited to the needs and conditions of human 
nature. 

This modern equality would forbid any one 
to exercise authority, civil or religious, over 
another, and that is anarchy. It would forbid 
us to be the proprietors of the fruit of our own 
toil, and would even take away the dominion of 
the parent over his child, breaking up the sacred 
ties of home, and reducing all classes to a 
strained and unnatural sameness like the herds 
in the field. That is socialism. With such 
equality we can have nothing to do. It is not 
the equality of Christ, but of anti-Christ. Those 
who defend and uphold it deny God and vilify 
Christ. 

Christian equality is equality of the soul, it 
is equality of manhood. God gives every man a 
soul which is the life of the body and is en¬ 
dowed with noble gifts. He gives it reasoning 
faculties, intellect and conscience, bestows upon 
it powers of love and hope, and imparts to it a 
sense of duty and responsibility. In that soul 


52 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


is the seed of immortality. It will live forever. 
God has prepared a place for it in heaven, beau¬ 
tiful beyond words and everlasting. That is 
what makes us men. The soul with all its 
splendid faculties, with its reason and under¬ 
standing and its glorious imagination and its 
sacred pinings of love, the soul with its immor¬ 
tal life and undying hope and its pledges of 
God’s fatherly care, the soul made to the image 
of God, reflecting the very being of God in its 
shining depths, that soul is what makes us men, 
and every soul is of equal worth to God. 

Christ died for all men. He died for the 
poorest and the lowliest as well as for the great¬ 
est. His open heart received all. His out¬ 
stretched arms embraced all. Look at His arms 
extended on the cross. They are reaching out 
to enfold us all, to draw us all to Him, and in 
the sweet embrace of these dear arms we are all 
equal. 

That is Christian equality. That is the 
equality of Christ, of the Apostles, of the 
Church. As St. Paul says, “there is neither 
Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither 
male nor female, for we are all one in Christ 
Jesus.” 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


53 


Christ would have all men free. “You shall 
know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free.” When He came into the world He found 
it half slave. These slaves were not accounted 
men, hut things. They were chattels or prop¬ 
erty. It was argued that they were naturally 
deficient in mind, and that they were suited 
bodily only to manual labor, their muscles, 
bones and sturdy limbs being so formed as to 
be well adapted to drudgery. It was thus con¬ 
tended that these poor people were by nature 
inferior to the noble freeman, and were rightly 
slaves and could never he anything else. But 
Jesus Christ said, Ho. These slaves were to 
Him the same as their masters, having the same 
manhood, the same souls, and being of equal 
worth and dignity. 

The Church took the same position and has 
kept it consistently ever since. She has always 
been against slavery. But everybody is against 
slavery to-day, and some may think that it was 
little credit to the Church to be against a 
thing so revolting and damnable. But I say 
that if everybody is against slavery to-day, it is 
because of the sentiment created against it by 
the constant and unremitting teaching and 


54 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


preaching of Christian truth. The anti-slavery 
sentiment is Christian. It first fell from the 
lips of Christ and has been carried abroad and 
instilled into the hearts and minds and convic¬ 
tions of men by the Church, Christ’s Church, 
which is Christ perpetuated among men, echo¬ 
ing His words, and continuing His teaching 
and His work. 

The affection of the Church for the slave was 
something most beautiful. Her great power 
and authority were constantly exerted to ame¬ 
liorate his condition. She never let an oppor¬ 
tunity pass to strike a blow in his favor. It 
was a great joy to her to set a slave free. On 
such an occasion she would take him into the 
sanctuary, and there, in the very holy of holies 
and with all possible solemnity, untie the bonds 
and pronounce him free. It was like the admin¬ 
istration of a Sacrament, something holy, some¬ 
thing performed with awe and reverence, and 
yet with joy,—this freeing of the poor slave. 
Could you imagine anything more touching? 
anything more Christ-like? One would think 
that so beautiful an act could scarcely be per¬ 
formed by any other than Christ Himself. But 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


55 


it was the Spouse of Christ did this, His 
Church. 

Christian equality upholds the honor and the 
dignity of the poor. The Church, like Christ, 
has always claimed the poor as her own in a 
special way, for the reason, no doubt, that they 
are rejected by others. She seems to see in 
them the person of Christ who was poor and* 
rejected. True charity, founded on the love 
of God and of the poor as God’s children, is 
essentially Christian. It began with Christ and 
spread through the world with the spread of 
Christian teaching and the growth of the 
Church. Christ loved the poor, and He gave 
His love for them to the Church, and the 
Church has always carried that love in her 
breast. It is one of the proofs that she came 
from Christ. The heart of Christ for the poor 
is in her. 

It has been said that the Catholic Church is 
the church of the poor, and that the rich are in 
it only by toleration. That may be only a par¬ 
tial truth, but it is undeniable that the love of 
the Church for the poor is one of her chief and 
most pronounced characteristics. A mother 
loves all her children dearly, but she usually 


56 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


loves the weakest most. Her fears are mostly 
about that one. It seems to absorb all her sym¬ 
pathies. How, the poor are the weak, the deli¬ 
cate ones, we might say, among the children of 
the Church, because they are the least able to 
guide, protect and support themselves. It is 
for this reason that the motherly heart of the 
Church clings to them so affectionately. If a 
true mother can have a favorite child, then the 
poor are the favorite children of the Church. 
When St. Lawrence was ordered to bring forth 
the treasures or sacred vessels of the altar that 
they might be confiscated, he led forth a great 
crowd of the poor, saying: “These are my treas¬ 
ures.” The poor are the treasures, the jewels 
of the Church. 

Witness the sacrifices the Church has made 
and is daily making for the poor! Count the 
institutions of charity which she has built and 
maintained with such cost and care. And char¬ 
ity is not a latter day thought with her. Go 
back to any age, even the most remote, and you 
will find her charity shining out with a divine 
beauty. 

How, this love of Christ and of the Church 
for the poor is not an empty sentiment, but is 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


57 


based on the truth that the poor man has the 
same worth before God as the rich, that though 
he be poor he still retains the dignity of his 
manhood. That dignity did not come to him 
through riches, and poverty does not take it 
away. Though he live in a hovel, he is not less 
before God than a king in his palace. 

Christian equality has lifted woman to the 
high place of honor which she enjoys to-day. 
She is the queen of the home, the angel of the 
household, respected always and everywhere. 
She has the same rights substantially as men. 
She is accounted his equal intellectually, and 
his superior morally. She is credited with a 
warmer heart, a more delicate conscience, and a 
more spiritual mind than man. We look to her 
to lead us on to better things, to be as a light to 
us along beneath the shadows of the upward 
way. 

But it was not ever thus. There was a time 
when woman was degraded and practically en¬ 
slaved. She was not regarded as the equal of 
man, and had few rights in law or custom. She 
was forced down into a position of ministering 
merely to man’s passion and caprice. The end 
and purpose of her existence seemed centered 


58 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


in that most menial, most degrading, most slav¬ 
ish of service. She had no protection from 
man’s anger, or tyranny, or brutal cruelty. 

In the face of this degradation, how beauti¬ 
ful is the teaching of Christ and the Church 
respecting womanhood! Christianity imme¬ 
diately accorded to woman the same honor as 
to man. They were possessed of souls essen¬ 
tially the same, made in the same divine image, 
having the same God for their Father, and the 
same heaven for their final home. She was 
declared to be not indeed a mere slave of man’s 
passion, but to he a companion, a helpmate, 
standing on the same level with him, and with 
natural, God-given rights which he must re¬ 
spect. The moral law was ro bind the same in 
the one as in the other, and any breach of it 
would bring the same stigma before God in 
either case. There was not to be one law for 
man and another for woman, but the same law 
for both. And woman was not to be cast aside 
at the whim of the husband. Once the mar¬ 
riage bond was tied, there was to be no separa¬ 
tion until death. At every Christian marriage, 
with terrible solemnity, these words were always 
uttered: “Until death do us part.” The mar- 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


59 


riage was not to continue just while company 
was congenial, or while temperaments agreed, 
or while love lasted, but until death. It was a 
bond made by God which only the hand of God 
could loose. 

Through the long centuries the Church has 
held consistently and persistently to this posi¬ 
tion. She has met with terrible opposition, and 
that opposition is not yet dead. It is in the cor¬ 
rupt hearts of men to this day. There is still 
a tendency in the world to belittle woman’s dig¬ 
nity. We see that tendency in the moral evil 
so flagrant in our large cities; we see it in the 
disposition to fasten little or no opprobrium up¬ 
on man for moral delinquencies, reserving that 
opprobrium only for woman; and most of all 
we see it in the growing frequency of divorce. 
The ultimate end of divorce is to degrade 
woman. It leads to that end as surely as night 
follows day. It may contribute occasionally to 
a woman’s convenience and pleasure, but in the 
long run its effect upon womankind is sure to 
be degrading. Its final effect must be to brand 
her as a mere tool of passion. The sacredness 
and indissolubility of marriage are the anchors 
of woman’s safety and dignity. If these an- 


60 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


chors are lifted, she will be swept away in the 
cruel storm of human lust. 

The Church has always stood for the dignity, 
the sacredness and the purity of woman. She 
has fought for her against princes and kings, 
and would suffer any loss or sacrifice rather 
than see her dragged down from that position 
which rightfully is hers. If the Church failed 
in that she would dishonor Christ and place a 
stain upon His Virgin Mother. 

Christian equality takes no cognizance of 
mere material things. These do not add any¬ 
thing to our worth before God, nor do they take 
anything away. It is only the thoughtless, the 
undiscerning, the vain, the frivolous, who are 
carried away by the varnish of material things. 
They do not see that the varnish is but a thin 
coating to catch the eye and fancy, and that the 
real substance is below. If you want to find a 
man’s worth, you must go down into the heart 
and conscience, you must enter into the cham¬ 
bers of his soul. You cannot tell his worth by 
the texture of his clothes or the glint of his 
jewels. It is good to be cultured and to appear 
well before men, but it is better ten thousand 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


61 


times to be pure of heart, honest in purpose and 
noble in mind. 

In our day a sentiment has developed that 
wealth lifts us above our less fortunate fellows, 
putting us on a high pinnacle where we expect 
others to look up to us. This pernicious senti¬ 
ment would make wealth the only badge of re¬ 
spectability, the only key to social prominence, 
as well as to honors and dignities of every kind. 
It would make wealth the one thing necessary 
in life, the one thing about which all ambition 
and hope should center. That is the great vice 
of this generation. It is a vice pure and simple, 
as drunkenness is a vice. 

Honest wealth is good, but the good that is 
in it is vastly exaggerated. It does not give all 
that it promises. It holds out glittering pledges 
which are never fulfilled. We foolishly think 
it will bring content, and peace, and joy, but 
these things it never brings, never. You may 
have wealth and still have a sad heart and a 
dissatisfied mind. And it is not necessarily a 
badge of honor or respectability. It does not 
lift us one iota higher before God. We are 
never looked upon by God with more compla¬ 
cency by reason of our wealth. Wealth does 


62 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


not add anything to the soul or to our manhood. 
It does not make the soul more resplendent or 
our manhood more beautiful. The man with¬ 
out wealth and the man with wealth are both 
equally God’s children, enjoying the same 
favors, sharing the same love, and having the 
same hope in their hearts. 

Another un-Christian sentiment, very com¬ 
mon in our day, is that the man who toils with 
his hands is less deserving of honor and respect 
than the one who toils with his brain, or who by 
reason of his wealth toils not at all. You can 
tell the laboring man by his large, hard hands, 
the muscles and bones grown large from exces¬ 
sive lifting and straining, and the skin heavy 
from contact with the instruments of toil. With 
many among us these hands indicate inferiority. 
They bespeak a lowly hearth and simple dress, 
and a mind without the arts of culture. They 
bespeak narrowness of life and social isolation. 
They bespeak just a man, nothing more. Well, 
I tell you, the hard hand of the toiler is just as 
good as the soft hand of the man of leisure. I 
tell you that God will not judge us by the soft¬ 
ness of our hands. 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


63 


Christ Jesus labored and toiled. Tradition 
tells us that he toiled with Joseph in the work¬ 
shop, for Joseph was a carpenter. Christ Jesus 
rose in the morning and went forth to work. He 
returned at evening, weary and tired, and the 
night’s rest was sweet to Him. By thus engag¬ 
ing in humble labor, He blessed it and made it 
honorable, and they who, like Him, toil for a 
living lose nothing of that dignity which God 
gave them when He breathed into them the 
breath of life. On the contrary, I think, there 
is something in humble, honest toil which ap¬ 
peals in a special way to God, something which 
suggests, if it does not imply, nearness to God, 
a secret something which strengthens our faith 
in Him and stimulates our love. Simple, hon¬ 
est toil means health to mind and body, and so 
it is health and strength to the soul. There is 
nothing in it to corrupt, or degrade, or drag 
down, but everything in it to purify, and ele¬ 
vate, and lift up, as running waters are ever 
pure. 

We should make no discrimination against 
the man who earns his living in the sweat of 
his brow. He is not beneath us, hut stands on 
the same plane with all of God’s children, just 


64 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


as acceptable to God as anybody else, his man¬ 
hood just as noble, his dignity just as great. 

Let us not look down on the least of our fel- 
lowmen. Let us give to every man that honor 
and respect which is his by divine right. Do 
not be proud. “Pride is the first infirmity of 
weak minds and the last of noble ones.” Do 
not be puffed up with good fortune. Prosperity 
is, I think, the hardest test for human nature 
to stand. It is hard to be humble, and simple, 
and natural, when others praise us. We are 
too prone to allow ourselves to grow in self-im¬ 
portance as we rise in the world. A little fame, 
a little wealth, a little learning, a little author¬ 
ity, and we swell with conceit. We thus show 
how weak and small we are. True greatness 
refuses to be conscious of it, and spurns the 
thought of it. True greatness is modest. The 
moment it becomes boastful it perishes. “Hearts 
that are great beat never loud.” Let us hold 
fast, therefore, to the truth of Christ that all 
men are essentially equal before Him,—the 
same in origin, the same in destiny, the same in 
manhood, and the same in soul. His love goes 
out to all in equal measures. We may differ in 
station, in character, in the strength and keen- 


CHRISTIAN EQUALITY. 


65 


ness of onr faculties, but in that which makes 
us men, in that which makes us children of God 
and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, there is no 
difference among us. All are one in Christ 
Jesus. 

In heaven we will find many of the lowly of 
this life occupying high places. Many of the 
poor, persecuted and rejected here, will receive 
high honors there. Many an humble, tired soul 
that goes through life unnoticed and unknown, 
lying down in an unmarked grave, unhallowed 
by a single tear, many such souls will shine be¬ 
fore God with a splendor that angels might 
envy. 

I tell you the despised of this world may be 
the accepted of God. Let us despise no one. 
Let us honor and love all men for the sake of 
Him who loved us and gave His life for us, 
shedding His blood for all of us, the least with 
the greatest, Christ Jesus our Lord. 


VI. 

THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 

npHEY who would do right must be prepared 
A to do many things which run counter to 
comfort and pleasure and apparent interests. 
The right thing to do is seldom that which we 
like to do, and still less seldom is it the easy 
thing to do. What is right and what our appe¬ 
tites urge us on to do are frequently as opposite 
as the poles. 

Right is in the nature and relation of things. 
It is the supreme will regulating and ordering 
human conditions. It is not our will; and our 
individual, personal, temporary welfare is not 
its end or purpose. Right is in the divine will, 
and its end is the good of all men and the glory 
of the Creator. In the long run, right conduct 
will result invariably in our individual good; 
but that good may be very far off, and may not 
be clearly seen by us. Hence in doing right. 


THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 


67 


we must be ready seemingly at least to sacrifice 
ourselves and our present interests. 

Eight is external to us, and is a fixed and 
rigid thing. We cannot change or modify it 
so that it will conform to us; we must conform 
to it. If there is any want of harmony, the 
fault is with us. We cut our clothes to fit us, 
but there is no theory of right expressly framed 
to fit unto our likes and dislikes. We must 
fashion ourselves to fit into what is right. We 
must bend ourselves to it, no matter how hard 
the task, no matter what sufferings or sacrifices 
are entailed, no matter how our weak flesh, with 
all its fancies, and whims, and passions, may 
writhe and even bleed under the strain. 

We know the right by what our conscience 
tells us. Conscience is the voice of God speak¬ 
ing within us. It is something more than sim¬ 
ple reason, for reason is selfish and seeks the 
passing good, whereas conscience is unselfish 
and seeks the eternal good. Conscience is like 
a king with supreme authority. It does not 
merely direct, it commands. There is no com¬ 
promising with conscience. You cannot bribe, 
or flatter, or frighten it. You cannot force it 
to alter its decrees by any pressure or compul- 


68 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


sion. You cannot even shut your ears so that 
you may not hear, for it speaks into the very 
soul. How conscience, in issuing its commands, 
never consults our convenience or comfort; it 
takes thought only of the right; and in sub¬ 
mitting ourselves to it, we must do so absolutely 
and unreservedly, not calculating the cost, but 
mindful only of the thing to be done. 

To obey one’s conscience, or, in other words, 
to bend one’s self into the mould of right in all 
life’s varied relations, and to do that from pure 
motives, freely and cheerfully foregoing pleas¬ 
ure, convenience and present advantage, re¬ 
quires courage. One must be strong to do that. 
He must have the perverse forces of his nature 
well under control. He must be dominated by 
high and pure ambitions. He must be pos¬ 
sessed of a genuine scorn of things low, and 
false, and mean. He must hold self always 
secondary, and comfort, and luxury, and ease, 
and possessions, even the ill will and hatred of 
men, as trivial and of no concern when they 
stand between him and his known duty. Ho 
one finds it easy to reject and deny the cravings 
of the heart, to curb the appetites, and to re¬ 
strain vicious cravings. It is not easy to undo 


THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 


89 


deep seated Habits, refusing where we always 
granted, accusing where we always pardoned, 
denouncing and condemning where we always 
spoke with soft, inviting words, expelling and 
shutting out forever where we always received 
with gracious hospitality. It is not easy to thus 
turn back the currents of life. It is not easy to 
unravel what we have woven. Who has ever 
wrestled with a terrible passion and found it 
easy to subdue ? Our passions usually take 
deep root in us, penetrating away into the very 
heart, into the very center and core of our be¬ 
ing. We cannot put them aside or drive them 
off with a wave of the hand. Ah, no. The 
moment we begin to break away from them, we 
feel a rending, and tearing, and bleeding deep 
down in us. It is as if a part of our life was 
being torn away. It is much the same as if a 
portion of the body had become diseased and 
was being amputated. The operation is pain¬ 
ful. Who will bear that pain ? Only the strong 
hearted, the brave, the courageous. The coward 
will delay and make excuses. He will say, “Hot 
now, but to-morrow,” and the passion goes on 
unchecked, spreading more and more its poison, 
and sinking deeper its thousand roots. He is a 


70 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


slave because he is a coward. If he were brave 
he would rise up in his might and break his 
chains and be free, no matter what the pain or 
what the cost. 

We are often placed in circumstances where 
temptations are very strong. Many lives run 
along wholly within the lines of propriety and 
right simply because they have fortunately not 
encountered those fiercer temptations which 
have been the ruin of so many others. Their 
barks have sailed on quiet waters, on peaceful 
inland lakes, and land locked bays, and have 
not felt the awful gales and towering, surging, 
mad rushing waves of the open sea. Ho doubt 
it is the part of true valor to avoid unneces¬ 
sary danger and to attain the desired end with 
the least risk of failure, but no matter how pru¬ 
dent and careful we may be, it frequently hap¬ 
pens that a net of unfavorable circumstances is 
woven about us and we suddenly find ourselves 
face to face with the terrible dilemma, either to 
sacrifice what appears to us most desirable and 
most alluring, something which seems almost 
necessary to us and without which life is hardly 
worth living, or to war with the conscience, 
heedless of the call of duty and of the shame 


THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 


71 


and dishonor of a blighted name. Such su¬ 
preme, trying moments occur more than once 
in many lives. They mark often the turn of the 
road, the beginning of the downward way. In 
such moments how necessary is courage! The 
weak then will surely fail; only the strong and 
brave will wrestle victoriously through the try¬ 
ing ordeal. We should pray to God that we 
may be brave, should such combination of cir¬ 
cumstances ever form in our lives. We should 
train and practice ourselves in doing heroic 
things so as to be prepared for just such occa¬ 
sions. 

People frequently become discouraged on ac¬ 
count of having fallen often or fallen deeply. 
Ho man falls so low but that he can rise. He 
has within him the necessary power, if he will 
only use it. There is no good reason for losing 
heart and giving up further effort because of 
one’s misfortune. Who will limit the power of 
God to help us, or His mercy to forgive us? 
God’s mercy is above all His works. Despair 
is itself evil. To despair is to sink deeper. So 
great is God’s mercy that He accounts it a 
grievous offense for those who have fallen even 
the lowest to feel that His mercy is exhausted 


72 SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 

for them. Into the deepest depth God’s 
mercy follows us, and His love is there 
ready to lift us up. We may wander far in 
dark paths, but no matter how far we go, God 
will hear us when we call to Him and will rush 
to our assistance, as the shepherd hurries away 
on swift feet when he hears the faint, far bleat¬ 
ing of the lost lamb. To he discouraged is to 
have no courage, and no courage means laying 
down one’s arms. It means no battle and no 
victory. 

Evil doing is indulgence. It is the opposite 
of self-sacrifice. It is granting whatever we 
crave. It is the removal of restraint. It is 
taking the bridle off our passions and letting 
them run loose. It is easy to lead a wicked life. 
One has but to hoist anchor and let the winds 
and currents have their way. Perversity trav¬ 
els on a downward course, and the path is 
smooth, and no effort is needed to glide swiftly 
along. We can go a long distance on that 
tempting, alluring path in a very short time. 
It is soft to the feet and pleasant to the eye. 

But the path of righteousness is quite differ¬ 
ent. It leads not downward but upward, as up 
a mountain side. It is a rough and winding 


THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 


73 


way, with stones and thorns that cut the feet, 
till they become sore and bleed. As we journey 
up that way we often grow weary and want to 
sit down and rest, tired with the continuous 
struggle. But we must not, cannot rest; we 
must keep climbing on and up to the clear, 
bright heights above. They who sit down to 
rest are cowards; the brave keep struggling on. 

Leading a good life is like rowing a boat up 
a stream. If we cease to pull at the oars the 
boat flies back. Constant and unremitting labor 
is necessary to overcome the awful current that 
is against us. Few people seem to realize the 
strength of that current. As a consequence 
many make slow progress, and many become 
tired or discouraged, and throw down their oars 
and float with the seething waters. These are 
the weak ones, the cowards. The brave keep 
hard at the oars, stern and determined. How 
sorely we need courage! Courage is strength. 
It is strength of soul. The great soul is the 
courageous soul. Without courage we become 
as driftwood on the tide, carried hither and 
thither with the rushing water, or like dead 
autumn leaves, the sport of every wind. With¬ 
out courage there is no firmness in us, no dis- 


74 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


position to grapple with opposing forces and 
hold our own. Without courage we are cow¬ 
ards, and cowardice is the most unmanly trait 
that can be woven into human character. The 
coward is ever despicable, and if there be grades 
of cowards, the lowest are those who, seeing 
their plain duty before them, have not the soul- 
strength to do it. 

We should do our duty as the true soldier 
does the bidding of his general. The soldier 
when given an order, executes it promptly with¬ 
out any thought of the trials or dangers in¬ 
volved. If told to take a certain position, no 
matter if in his judgment certain defeat and 
even death are sure to follow, he does not hesi¬ 
tate or argue, but proceeds to do as directed. 
Obedience is a primary virtue with him and 
cowardice a stigma of shame. In like manner 
should we obey the voice of conscience. That 
voice is God calling us to do certain things. It 
is God commanding. Would that we all had 
the true soldier’s courage to obey these divine 
commandments promptly, fearlessly and with¬ 
out thought of trouble or pain to self! 

As Christians, we are soldiers and belong to 
a great army where heroism is richly rewarded 


THE COURAGE TO DO RIGHT. 


75 


and cowardice terribly punished. We belong to 
the army of Christ. He is our leader. We 
march under His banner. We fight for Him. 
And heaven is the reward of heroic deeds as 
hell is the punishment of cowardice. In the 
ages past, what heroes have been in that army! 
Think of the Saints! How brave they were! 
What gallant deeds they did! They rushed 
from victory to victory. They courted danger 
and feared not death. They always fell with 
their faces to the foe. See the Martyrs! How 
cheerfully they gave up their lives rather than 
deny Him who was their chief and leader! 
They were cast into prison, loaded with chains, 
their bodies torn with iron hooks; they were 
thrown into flaming fires and before wild 
beasts, yet they bore it all without complaint. 
They blessed the name of Christ in their 
agonies, and died professing their faith in Him. 

Behold their leader and our leader, Christ 
Jesus, than whom no greater hero ever trod the 
earth! Ho one who ever lived, dared more than 
Christ dared, or suffered more than He suffered. 
You and I are soldiers in the army of Christ 
just as the Saints and Martyrs were. We stand 
where they stood, we have the same divine, 


76 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


heroic leader, we see the same banner floating 
over us, we march over the same fields, we fight 
with the same arms, we face the same enemy, 
and we know that heaven still stands as the 
reward of the brave. 

Let us all try to be heroes in doing what 
we know to be right, heroes in fulfilling the 
various duties that come to us in life, heroes in 
building up beautiful, Christian characters, so 
that men will know that we are followers of 
Christ by the fact that we are living as He 
lived, and striving to do as He did, and to be as 
He was. Let us try to be worthy of the Saints 
and Martyrs whose places we occupy, and whose 
heroic lives stand out before us as worthy pat¬ 
terns of what our lives should be. 


VII. 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


HEIST JESUS is in the world. He came 
to ns in pity and compassion, and would 
not leave us, but abides with us. 

His coming was not in power and splendor, 
but in weakness and humility. He was the 
child of Mary. Joseph was His foster father. 
Under their care He grew up to manhood. At 
the age of thirty He went forth to fulfill His 
heaven-appointed mission. He announced His 
gospel, preached it everywhere to the people, de¬ 
clared Himself the Son of God, and by His 
miracles proved that He spoke the truth. 

After three years of public life, His work 
being finished, He was crucified and buried. 
On the third day He rose from the dead and 
afterwards ascended into heaven. Some of the 
Apostles saw Him when He was lifted up into 
the clouds, and we are told that, as He passed 
away out of view, these Apostles stood there 


78 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


looking up to the sky in wonder and astonish¬ 
ment. 

Did Christ then leave us when He ascended 
into heaven? No, He did not. In the holy 
Sacrament of the Eucharist He perpetuates 
Himself among us. In that blessed Sacrament 
He remains with us. He is here now in our 
midst. He is here just as really as He was 
among His Apostles on the night of the last 
supper, or on the day when doubting Thomas 
put his hand into the wound in His side. We 
do not see Him with our bodily eyes, but we 
see Him with the eyes of the spirit. He is in 
every tabernacle all over the world. He is in 
the grand cathedral and the lowly chapel. He 
is in the crowded city and in the dreary, de¬ 
serted country. That is our faith. It is the 
faith of all Catholics. It has always been our 
faith. 

Again, Christ is with us in a mystical sense 
in the Church. The Church is the mystical 
body of Christ. The Church is a moral person 
with Christ as its head. Whatever the Church 
does, Christ does. Christ acts through His 
Church. The mission of the Church is Christ’s 
mission continued. Christ preaches to the 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


79 


world through the Church. He forgives sin 
through the Church. He reproves sinners 
through the Church. He helps the poor and 
afflicted through the Church. Any injury to 
the Church is an injury to Him. Any insult to 
the Church is an insult to Him. Any victory 
won by the Church is a victory won by Him. 
In this mystical sense, the Church is Christ’s 
body; and wherever the Church is, Christ is. 

It is a truth, therefore, that Christ is in the 
world. He is in the world now and will remain 
with us always. We will pass away and be for¬ 
gotten, and our names will he spoken no more; 
every one of us will be laid away in the silent 
halls, but He will remain, and millions will 
worship Him just as they do now and as they 
have done. He was here in the first century, 
He is here now in the twentieth century, He 
will he here in the thirtieth and fiftieth cen¬ 
turies, and always until the heavens are rolled 
up. 

There was a time when Christ was not in 
the world. That was before His birth among 
us. The world was dark then and full of error 
and sin. Except a chosen few, men did not 
know God. They felt the want of God. They 


80 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


sought Him, but He remained hidden or dimly 
seen. They confounded Him with the things 
about them. It has been said that everything 
was God with them except God Himself. Hot 
knowing God, these poor pagan people knew 
little about themselves, about what they were, 
what their origin was and what their destiny 
might be. They knew little about right and 
wrong, about duty and responsibility. With 
them, might was the final arbiter in every dis¬ 
pute. The strong triumphed and the weak were 
enslaved. Hot possessing divine truth, these 
children of idolatry had only the dim light of 
reason to guide them,—“a faint and flickering 
torch by stumblers carried in a starless night.” 
How helpless they were! They did not, could 
not understand. They lived only for the pres¬ 
ent. “Let us rejoice to-day,” they said, “for 
to-morrow we die.” That was the law for those 
pagan people who lived before Christ. In that 
way they sought happiness. They sought it in 
indulgence, in putting away restraint, in the 
riot of passion and caprice. Poor deluded crea¬ 
tures ! They did not know that happiness was 
never found there. Ho one ever found it there, 
no one ever will. 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


81 


If you want to find happiness, do not look 
for it in the false, in the untrue, in the forbid¬ 
den. Seek it with clean hands and a pure heart, 
otherwise it will fly before you as the wild bird 
before the hunter. 

When Christ came into the world He imme¬ 
diately introduced a new order of things, a new 
mode of living. He brought with Him a light 
from heaven, a light that had never shone in 
the eyes of men before, a light which made the 
world bright, which revealed man to himself. 
In that blessed light, man could see from 
whence he came and whither he was going, and 
could discern clearly the paths along which he 
must walk. 

Christ said that we must not live for the 
present but for the future. He told us of the 
future life in heaven. He said we must repress 
our passions and evil inclinations, we must 
conquer and subdue ourselves, we must in truth 
crucify ourselves; and in that self denial, in 
that conquest of ourselves, in that moulding of 
ourselves according to the divine model, ac¬ 
cording to the picture which He held up to us, 
refusing to ourselves many things which we 
crave, and doing many things which are hard 


82 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


and repugnant, in that way, He said, we would 
become noble, and great, and pleasing before 
God and man, and would find peace here and 
peace everlasting hereafter. 

Christ raised human life to a higher plane. 
He put it upon higher ground, upon a new 
foundation, the foundation of truth. He 
preached a new gospel, a gospel which was 
strange to the world and must have seemed 
startling to pagan ears. His gospel was directly 
the opposite of that to which the idolatrous 
world had been accustomed. He did not say 
“Blessed are the rich”; hut He said, “Blessed 
are the poor.” He did not say, “Blessed are 
the mighty”; hut He said, “Blessed are the 
meek.” He did not say, “Blessed are they who 
hunger and thirst for fame”; hut, “Blessed are 
they who hunger and thirst for justice.” He 
did not say, “Blessed are they who conquer na¬ 
tions and lead armies to victory”; but He said, 
“Blessed are the merciful.” He said, “Blessed 
are the clean of heart”; and He said that we 
should love one another, that we should love our 
neighbors as ourselves, that we should do good 
to those who hate us, and pray for those who 
persecute and calumniate us. And He did not 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


83 


say that we might do these things; no, He said 
we must. He said, “Thou shalt.” 

And this new gospel, which He brought 
down from heaven, which came to us from the 
very lips of God, renovated the world. The 
world has been brighter and better since it came. 
Nature is more beautiful, the sky is fairer, the 
flowers are lovelier. There is more charity 
everywhere and less cruelty. Men love each 
other more. Life is worth more. It is sweeter 
to live now. God is with us. He is here with 
us in His divine Son Jesus Christ. And He 
has brought heaven down close to us. 

Oh, how happy are they who love tenderly 
our blessed Lord, and who try steadfastly to 
serve Him! Heaven is not far from them. It 
is near them, so near that in the quietness and 
peace of their pure souls, they can almost hear 
the heating of angelic wings. 

Christ is in the world! What a comfort 
that is! What a comfort it is to feel that He is 
near us! We are never alone when we have 
Him to speak to. We are never friendless or 
abandoned, for the more we are neglected by 
men, the more is He a friend to us. Our friends 
often turn against us; sometimes those who are 


84 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


nearest and dearest to us reject us and speak 
evil of us and plan injury to us, so uncertain 
and changeable is human nature. But here is 
a friend who never changes. Here is a loved 
one who is always true. He will never misun¬ 
derstand you. He will never think evil of you 
when you have done no evil. He will never 
sacrifice you for any personal advantage. He is 
the best and truest of friends. Possibly it is 
wrong for me to call Him friend. He is so 
much more than a friend. He is my God and 
my all. 

Has fortune dealt hard with you? Have 
life’s blows and buffets been severe with you? 
Has some great affliction taken hold of you, 
some awful agony, some terrible despair ? What 
a comfort, then, to have Christ near you, Christ 
Jesus who was the man of sorrows, who suffered 
every sorrow, who felt every pain, into whose 
pure heart went the sting of every agony! What 
a comfort to think, to know, that Christ has 
gone before us in all these things, that there is 
no Gethsemani where He has not knelt, no Cal¬ 
vary which He has not climbed. We never 
tread the wine press alone. He told us to take 
up our cross and follow Him. He did not say, 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


85 


“Take up your cross and carry it”; but He said, 
“Take up your cross and follow Me.” He meant 
that He would go before us. What a comfort 
in the dark night of sorrow to feel that some one 
is walking before us, helping us along through 
the darkness and up the steep way, and smooth¬ 
ing down the rough road for our weary, bleed¬ 
ing feet! 

It is not good for us to tell our afflictions to 
others, except to the nearest and dearest, but 
we can tell them always to our blessed Lord. 
He will hear them. He has an ear open to 
every grief. His divine heart reaches out ten¬ 
derly to every sad heart all over the world. He 
wants to comfort, to console, to cheer. He likes 
to lift up a depressed spirit and put joy into it 
and hope. He likes to heal wounds and lighten 
loads. He has balm for every bruise. “Come 
to Me,” He says, “all ye who labor and are 
heavy burdened, and I will refresh you.” 

Christ is in the world. What a help for 
those who are trying to improve themselves, for 
those who are trying to rise up out of an evil 
past, a dark past, to a fairer future. Christ 
was the perfect man. There was no shadow of 
evil in Him. We are all imperfect. There is 


86 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


a flaw in every one of us. It is not that God 
made us so; we made ourselves so. We cannot 
become models to one another. Should we fol¬ 
low such a model we would often build falsely. 
Christ is our model. He is our true and perfect 
model. In our efforts to improve ourselves we 
can regulate our conduct after His, we can 
mould our character after His, we can build up 
a life like His. And what a beautiful life His 
was; so full of truth and justice and mercy 
and love; so full of tender feeling and high 
purpose and noble thought, the divine and 
human so exquisitely mixed, never swerving 
from the good and the right, but holding always 
to the path of perfect rectitude with the con¬ 
stancy of a moving star. What a great help to 
have such a life to look to, such a life to copy 
after! We might sometimes be in doubt as to 
the proper things to do or the proper disposi¬ 
tions to cultivate, but we can never be in doubt 
so long as we have the picture of that beautiful, 
perfect life before us. 

And not only as a model is Christ helpful to 
us, but He assists us directly. It is impossible 
to conceive Christ as near us and not assisting 
us. During His visible life He went about do- 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


87 


ing good, and no doubt in His mysterious life 
among us, He still goes about doing good. He 
wants to make every life like His own, beauti¬ 
ful like His own, perfect like His own; and 
there is no life so humble, so obscure, that He 
does not stoop to aid it. 

Let us suppose that you have won some great 
victory over yourself. You have succeeded in 
throwing oft* a bad habit which clung to you 
like a leech and made you a slave. But you 
conquered it, and you are free from it now. 
Who helped you to conquer it? Who helped 
you to unloose its terrible grasp, to break away 
from those awful arms of steel which it had 
thrown around you? Did you know that some 
one worked with you day and night, and strove 
with you in all your struggles and wrestlings, 
and whispered courage to you when you were 
weak and despairing? Who could that be who 
helped you so much, who was so good and kind 
to you ? Ah, you surely know. I need not tell 
you that it was our blessed Lord. He helps us 
in every victory we win. He is always there 
to rejoice with us. The victory is half His. 

And when we fall, as we often do through 
weakness and frailty, He never forsakes us. 


88 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


Christ never forsakes the fallen. We human 
creatures too often turn against them. There 
are many reasons for that, but I have always 
thought that the chief reason is this one, that 
not being tempted in a particular direction our¬ 
selves, we cannot understand how others are 
tempted in that direction, and we attribute their 
falls to pure malice, and consequently have no 
pity for them. But Christ, with His divine 
insight, sees and understands these things bet¬ 
ter. He is an eye witness to every soul strug¬ 
gle. He sees the poor soul battling with the 
deadly foe. He sees every blow struck and all 
the open, bleeding wounds. When the weak¬ 
ened, weary soul is at last overcome, He does 
not say, “Begone, depart from Me, thou wretch, 
thou unclean thing.” Ho, He says rather, 
“Poor, bleeding soul, come, I will lift thee up; 
come, I will give thee strength; come, I will 
wash out thy wounds and will pour oil and balm 
into them”; and if it responds to this pleading, 
if it but turns and looks upon Him in sorrow, 
He will heal all its wounds and make it whole 
again. 

Oh! the mercy of Jesus Christ! If we had 
only some of that mercy, some of that love, we 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


89 


would be kinder than we are. We would be 
swifter to help and slower to condemn. 

What a sense of security and hope there is 
in the thought that Christ is in the world! 
Sometimes we look out on human life and we 
almost despair of any improvement in it. There 
is so much evil everywhere, so much contention 
and prejudice, so much grinding and crushing 
and torturing of human souls. But the world 
will grow better. It is better now than it was. 
Christ is leading it on, Christ in the holy 
Eucharist, Christ in the Church. He is leading 
it slowly up to higher ground, up to a clearer 
sky and a purer atmosphere. We do not notice 
the change that is taking place, but every day 
there is some advance made; every evening is 
fairer than the morning and every night less 
dark. 

That gives us confidence for the future. 
Christ is the great reformer. He is behind 
every good cause. He is deep down at the foun¬ 
dation of every good movement. There He 
toils in secret, trying to fill our hearts with a 
hatred of all evil and a love of all that is holy 
and true. There is not a heart anywhere that 
He is not striving with, not even the poorest 


90 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


and lowliest. He is striving to make every 
heart look up to God and feel an interest in 
obeying and serving Him, striving to make 
every heart see the beauty of a good life, of an 
honest pure life, and to have it try to live such 
a life. 

He is the great reformer. Just as God builds 
the mountains, just as He made the stars, just 
as He draws forth the flower out of the seed, 
the blooming rose out of the lowly root, so is 
Christ building up human life, making it a 
thing of beauty and of joy before God, purify¬ 
ing it, ennobling it, taking out the dross of evil 
and putting in the pure gold of honesty and 
truth. 

Christ is in the world and all is well. Let 
there be no sadness anywhere. Let us all be 
glad. If misfortune comes to us, if pain and 
sickness come, if friends prove false and loved 
ones leave us, let us still be glad; Christ is in 
the world. If our temptations are very great 
and our struggles often seem in vain, if men do 
evil to us and caluminate us, if we are looked 
down upon because we are poor or unfortunate, 
if the wicked are triumphant and the good seem 
singled out for suffering, let us not be depressed, 


CHRIST IN THE WORLD. 


01 


let us not despair, let us still have hope. Virtue 
will yet bring its reward. Right will yet 
triumph. The good shall yet reign. Christ is 
in the world and all is well. 


VIII. 

CIRCUMSTANCES AND WILL. 

THERE are few people so sunk in vice that 
* the thought of rising to something better 
does not now and then present itself to them. 
Scarcely any one wholly abandons himself to 
his passions, sells himself body and soul to dis¬ 
honor, so that he is content to remain in that 
depraved state. If there be any such in the 
world, they are unworthy of the form and en¬ 
dowments of man. Such persons, if they ever 
came from the animal, have gone back to the 
animal again, trailing their human attributes 
in the dust. The vast majority of men are not 
satisfied with what they are. Looking in upon 
themselves they see innumerable failings which 
are in no way pleasing to them, and which they 
would gladly correct. This simply means that 
there is a remnant of manhood left in them, a 
little craving for the good and true, a little hun- 


CIRCUMSTANCES AND WILL. 


93 


ger for the divine. They know God, and the 
impulse to become like Him is not entirely ex¬ 
tinct in them. 

Personal improvement depends upon per¬ 
sonal effort; but when we try to improve we 
meet with many obstacles which dishearten and 
discourage us, obstacles which oftentimes ap¬ 
pear insuperable and seem to render further 
striving futile. We are like prisoners in chains, 
and when we attempt to free ourselves we 
realize how strong those chains are. We think 
we can break them, but in the attempt to do so 
we cut and tear our limbs, only to fall back in 
weakness and despair. It is hard to advance to 
the good things we desire. Innumerable cir¬ 
cumstances hold us in an iron grasp and will 
not let us go. 

Some of these circumstances are impulses 
which we have inherited and which are in our 
very flesh and blood. The common idea is that 
our parents give us simply life, but they give us 
more than life, they give us much of the form 
and setting of life. As Emerson says, there 
are at least seven or eight ancestors, parents, 
grandparents, great-grandparents, rolled up in 
each of us. Their characters, dispositions and 


94 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


impulses have an influence on us. Much of what 
we think, and feel, and do, is the result of what 
they thought, and felt, and did. Many of our 
words are echoes of theirs, and many of our 
deeds, both bad and good, are deeds begun by 
them and completed by us. They are the first 
chapters in the book, we are just another chap¬ 
ter added, and the same plot and story run 
through all. As a rule we are our parents con¬ 
tinued. 

Besides these inherited impulses, there are 
tendencies in us, vicious tendencies, which have 
developed in our own lives and for which we 
ourselves are wholly responsible. Every evil 
act deliberately performed begets in us a ten¬ 
dency in that direction. At first it may be very 
weak and imperceptible, but if the act is re¬ 
peated many times, the tendency grows and 
becomes powerful. We call it then a habit or 
a passion. In every life there are many such 
vicious habits or passions, and they come to us 
not as an ancestral legacy, but as the fruit of 
our own folly. With our own hands we sowed 
the seeds from which they sprang. In our 
hearts we begot and nursed and pampered them 
until they waxed strong. We feel them within 


CIRCUMSTANCES AND WILL. 


95 


us. There is not a moment when we do not 
realize their presence. They command us like 
imperious tyrants, and if we murmur they lash 
us into obedience as a master his slave. 

Yet we have more to contend with than in¬ 
herited impulses and created tendencies or pas¬ 
sions. There are external conditions which 
must he fought and overcome. Our surround¬ 
ings often drag us down. If you pass through 
a cloud of dust the particles cling to you, and 
so if we live in an atmosphere of evil we cannot 
escape being infected by it. The plumage of 
birds takes the color of the leaves of the forest 
where they fix their homes. The fur of many 
animals, though of a dark shade in summer, is 
white in winter, harmonizing thereby with the 
whiteness of the snow. In like manner we tend 
to grow in accord and harmony with our sur¬ 
roundings. Our homes have often a debasing 
effect upon us. The home should be elevating 
and ennobling in its influence. It should tend 
to lift us up and encourage us in all things that 
are good. Its brightness and its good cheer 
should be as a light to us along the upward way. 
But alas! all homes are not of that kind. Many 
are full of contention, ill will, hatred, lies and 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


profanity. There is a frown on every brow; 
and scolding, fault-finding, and spiteful nag¬ 
ging go on unceasingly. Such homes degrade, 
they stifle and destroy any good resolves that 
may waken in the heart. They are gardens run 
to rank and poisonous weeds. Ho life can put 
forth the bloom of beauty in such homes. Then 
we may have vicious companions, and there is 
a strong inclination in every one to become like 
those with whom he associates. Man is imita¬ 
tive. He seems to have a weakness for repro¬ 
ducing in himself what he sees in others. Ani¬ 
mals of the same species have usually the same 
habits. There is a little of the same character¬ 
istic in man. He instinctively becomes like 
his associates. 

Here, now, we have a number of circum¬ 
stances which operate against us in our efforts 
to improve, which restrain and hinder us when 
we strive to advance. How are they to be con¬ 
quered and overthrown? By what power are 
we to resist them ? By the power of the will. 

Man is a free agent. He has the privilege 
of choosing between doing and not doing. This, 
of course, is understood with certain limita¬ 
tions. If a person stumbles he cannot avoid 


CIRCUMSTANCES AND WILL. 


97 


falling. You may sometimes try to resist sleep, 
but fatigue will in the end overcome you. So 
there are certain things about which we have no 
choice, but in a vast number of things we have 
choice, and it is only where that power of choice 
exists that there is moral responsibility. We 
are not accountable for forced actions, we are 
accountable only for voluntary actions. You 
may think it strange that the freedom of the 
human will has been denied. Yet such is the 
case. There have been men in the world in 
every age, and there are men in the world now, 
men of reputed learning, who claim that we are 
just like machines, that all our actions are the 
result of an extremely delicate mechanism, set 
in motion by external forces, and that these 
external forces, together with the mechanism 
itself and the actions which flow from it, are 
entirely beyond our control. In other words, 
it is contended that we walk, and talk, and 
smile, and weep, and work, and play, just as 
water flows or rain falls, that we grow physical¬ 
ly, morally and intellectually just as the grass 
grows. Herbert Spencer says, “Human ad¬ 
vancement or progress is all of a kind with the 
development of an embryo or the unfolding of 


98 SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 

a flower.” Now, you know that such a theory, 
no matter who champions it, is absurd. You 
know that you are free, that there are certain 
things which you can do or can not do, just as 
you please. The freedom of the will needs no 
proof; it proves itself. 

So in controlling those multitudinous cir¬ 
cumstances, of which I have been speaking, in¬ 
herited impulses, acquired tendencies, and un¬ 
wholesome environment, in controlling these, 
the only power at our disposal, outside of spe¬ 
cial supernatural helps, is the power of the 
will; and blessed is he who has not only a free 
will, but a strong will. A strong will may de¬ 
generate into stubbornness; and stubbornness 
manifests itself chiefly in persistently holding 
to something which you know to be wrong, in 
holding to an opinion which you know to be 
false, or in following a course of conduct, a 
plan or scheme of action, which you know to 
be vain or vicious. There are many stubborn 
people in the world. They want to be unique 
or different from others. They have strong 
wills, indeed, but that strength has been turned 
to ignoble purposes. Aim to have a strong will 
in those things which your conscience tells you 


CIRCUMSTANCES AND WILL. 


99 


are worthy. Use the intellect which God has 
given yon to determine the right,—the right 
word to speak, the right act to perform, the 
right course to pursue, the right ambition to 
cherish, the right goal towards which, as the 
supreme object of life, you set your feet; and 
then with a will that knows no surrender, with 
a will that does not weaken under discourage¬ 
ment, or tremble in danger, with such a will go 
forth fearlessly and irresistibly to thy self- 
appointed task. Let thy will be as a cable of 
steel holding thee fast and firm to whatsoever 
of good thou wouldst do. Every failure, morally 
speaking, is failure of will. Every worthy 
striving come to naught is failure of will. 
Every lofty impulse grown barren of results is 
failure of will. There is no sin except the sin 
of the will,—the perversity, the rebellion, the 
failure of the will. Every good deed done is 
the triumph of the will. It is a victory for the 
will. Out from that victory the will comes a 
conquering hero. Oh! the majesty, the gran¬ 
deur of a strong will that soldierlike chooses 
death to defeat! 

How can a strong will be cultivated? It 
can be cultivated more easily than strength of 


100 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


body or strength of intellect. But how? Well, 
oftentimes you make up your mind that you 
will do such and such a thing. You are going 
to say your prayers every morning, or you are 
going to speak to an enemy, or you are going to 
forgive an offense, or you are not going to get 
angry; you make up your mind to one or other 
of these things or some other thing equally as 
good, and the most effective method of strength¬ 
ening the will is to persist in doing that thing, 
no matter what circumstances, ordinarily speak¬ 
ing, interfere with its performance. Many 
people are forever resolving and never doing. 
That weakens the will. It robs it of nerve, 
muscle and bone, and leaves it limp and listless. 
On the contrary, the scrupulous observance of 
every good resolve gives it stability and firm¬ 
ness. 

Circumstances and will are the two great 
forces struggling for mastery in every human 
breast. They wage unceasing warfare on each 
other, and the success of each human life de¬ 
pends on the outcome. Victory and honor will 
rest with him whose will is strong, and defeat 
and shame with him whose will is weak. 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


/^\UR Lord frequently referred to natural 
objects to illustrate bis teachings. In or¬ 
der to impart faith in divine providence, He 
pointed to the laws of material growth and the 
seemingly miraculous transformation which 
they bring about in the natural world. To me 
the most significant of his references to natural 
objects is to the flowers of the field which neither 
spin nor labor in any way, and yet not even 
Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of 
them. In beauty and magnificance and the 
power to teach heavenly truths, they surpass 
anything else in nature. 

Flowers are little things and one might think 
them incapable of teaching anything, particu¬ 
larly anything of uncommon import, but as 
God often chooses weak instruments for the 
accomplishment of wonderful works, so He 


102 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


often makes use of things small and lowly to 
impart transcendent truths. A flower may be 
as potent a teacher as a planet or a star. 

God made the flowers and gave them all their 
beauty and sweetness. His purpose in making 
them was not merely to delight the eye and fill 
us with passing pleasure, but to teach us a 
wholesome lesson. God never acts except with 
great purposes in view, and His purpose in 
creating such marvels of nature was, no doubt, 
to lead us on, through the charm which they 
exert on us, to the comprehension of important 
truths. Let us now see what the flower teaches. 

It develops from a seed. Planted in the 
earth, the seed germinates. Gradually it pushes 
its way to the light and grows into a firm stalk, 
with branches and leaves. The development 
goes on slowly and imperceptibly. As it reaches 
maturity a tiny bud appears and quickly bursts 
into bloom. What riches are in that flower! 
What a wealth of beauty and sweetness! The 
breezes are laden with its fragrance. People 
stop and look at it in wonder. They marvel at 
its delicate colors and perfection of form. The 
sight of it arouses in them a feeling of delight, 
and they go away with joy in their faces. 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


1C3 


What, indeed, is there in nature more beau¬ 
tiful than flowers! We deck our homes with 
them. We ornament our altars. We carry 
them to the sick to cheer them in pain. We 
offer them to loved ones as tokens of our affec¬ 
tion. We plant them on the graves of our dead 
to testify that we do not forget, that the heart 
is still true. 

Our lives begin in humility and weakness 
like the flower. The good life, like the flower, 
grows upward,—up towards God. The face of 
the flower is turned to the sun. Its arms are 
outstretched to the sun. It wants the sunlight. 
So the good life has God always before it as the 
grand goal to be reached. The good life is ever 
seeking to keep on the one straight path which 
leads to God. It rejects as trivial and secon¬ 
dary any interest which would tend to divert it 
from that path. What are passing, temporal 
interests compared with eternal interests! No 
other life is of any real value but the life that 
is lived for God. There may be such a thing as 
a good natural life, that is, a life which is lived 
without thought of God or in positive rejection 
of Him; but such a life is of no worth beyond 
what it brings here and now. It does not reach 


104 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


beyond the grave. It does not count in the 
great hereafter. The life which God approves 
and rewards is the life consciously directed to¬ 
wards Him. We must be making towards 
heaven if we expect ever to reach there. 

The flower grows steadily to maturity. Each 
day it is stronger with larger leaves and firmer 
stalk. In like manner the good life constantly 
develops into perfection, ever becoming fairer 
and more beautiful before God. The flower 
draws from the soil around it such elements as 
contribute to its growth. The good life draws 
from the world around it whatever may be 
helpful to its spiritual advancement. Every¬ 
thing that is in the world, all its varied circum¬ 
stances and conditions, its labors and pains, its 
victories and defeats, its joys and sorrows, sick¬ 
ness and health, poverty and riches, everything 
in the world that comes within touch of us or 
aflects us in any way, all these things are here 
in order that, through the helps which they give 
us and through the opportunities which they 
afford us, we may develop our lives ever more 
and more perfectly before God. Every thing 
our eyes rest upon, or our hands touch, or our 
heart feels, or our mind knows, everything that 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


105 


makes up this bewildering world around us, is 
here to aid us in growing more and more into 
the perfect image of God. All this varied com¬ 
plex world is the soil from which the roots of 
true life draw sustenance. 

It is of comparatively little importance 
whether good or evil fortune comes to us in this 
life, but it is of supreme importance that we 
utilize everything that comes to us for our bet¬ 
terment, just as the flower utilizes the soil 
around it for its growth. 

But the flower does not depend wholly upon 
the soil. It needs light without which it would 
wither and die. So the good life needs help 
from on high. It needs the help which God 
gives to those seeking it. It is astonishing how 
impotent we are to make any advancement, as 
long as we depend wholly upon ourselves. Many 
people have a conceit that they can do by them¬ 
selves alone just what they want to. They 
imagine they have unusual firmness and deter¬ 
mination, and do not need any special aid be¬ 
yond the strength which nature has given them. 
These people are like the child that fancies it is 
a man and tries to do the things of a man. 


106 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


They have yet to learn a great deal about them¬ 
selves and the insidious influences of life. 

Depend upon it, if you want to lead a good 
life, you must kneel down and lift your heart 
and voice to God for aid in prayer. You must 
ajDpeal to the God of all strength for the strength 
you stand in need of. It is only those who in 
humility and love place their hand in God’s 
hand, and walk with His guidance and support, 
only those who can proceed with confidence, on¬ 
ly those can make progress. God is leading 
them on. His truth is a lamp to their feet, and 
His grace a staff in their hand. 

While the good life needs divine help for 
its growth and perfection, that help comes only 
to those who seek it and are worthy of it, and 
is never more than supplementary to our own 
endeavors. Divine help is of no avail without 
effort on our part. God helps those who help 
themselves. While, therefore, the flower grows 
by a law of nature, we grow by our own striv¬ 
ing. Our moral growth, that is, our character 
and soul development, is the outcome of such 
efforts as we ourselves put forth. Even our 
physical growth is more or less regulated by our 
free acts. In other words, the flower grows 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


107 


from without and as a matter of necessity, man 
grows from within and as a matter of choice; 
the flower could not, if it would, be other than 
it is, man becomes only what he desires to be 
and strives for; the flower labors not and still 
progresses, man advances only in proportion to 
the amount of his labor, his excellence being 
measured by the opposition which he encounters 
and the efforts he makes to resist it. 

In God’s service and therefore in life’s 
struggle, it is not so much the success we 
achieve which counts as the striving to suc¬ 
ceed. With God no honest effort ever fails; 
the effort itself is success. Man is just what he 
makes himself to be. 

In due time the flower puts forth its wond¬ 
rous bloom. That is its crowning glory. Every¬ 
thing else leads to that and has its purpose and 
end in that. It was for that its stalk was reared. 
It was for that its leaves were spread out. It 
was for that the winds and withering drought 
were resisted, the dews of heaven drunk in, and 
the earth rifled of every element that could add 
to its strength and growth. 

Have you ever looked carefully into the 
bloom of a flower? What perfection of form 


108 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


is there! How nicely arranged and propor¬ 
tioned and balanced are all the parts ? The col¬ 
ors are such as no artist can paint. They are 
so deep, and so true, and so exquisitely blended 
that I scarcely think an angel from heaven 
could paint them. They are like the colors we 
see in the rainbow, and in the glories of the 
sunset, colors which painters ever dream of, but 
never can reproduce. In sweetness of frag¬ 
rance, nothing can equal the flowers in blossom. 
On a fair June morning, how delightful to walk 
in the garden or through the fields in the frag¬ 
rance-laden air! The whole earth is like a 
sanctuary full of incense. 

A good life blooms into everlasting life, into 
that higher, better, endless, happy life with 
God in heaven. For the true and the good, for 
those who have been faithful to their trusts and 
have walked through life with firm and steady 
feet, not wandering in strange paths, but hold¬ 
ing rigidly to the straight and narrow way, for 
them death is life’s blooming. It is a glorious 
transformation of this life, the coming into full 
possession of the fruit of honest, faithful, godly 
living in this world. 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


109 


And how glorious is that heavenly life! How 
incomparably beautiful! What thrills of 
ecstacy! What transports of joy will be found 
in that life! Sorrow will have no place there, 
nor pain, nor trouble, nor anything to lessen or 
mar our infinite delight. We shall see and 
know God there. The veil which hides Him 
from us here will be drawn aside, and we shall 
behold Him as He is. We shall comprehend 
then His wonderful attributes and the infinite 
depths of His love and goodness. We shall re¬ 
joice with God there and with one another in a 
happy and eternal union. There will be no 
partings there, nor farewells, nor even the fear 
of separation. We shall he exalted there, with 
new hearts and fairer minds and glorified 
bodies, and light and splendor shall encompass 
us. Our faces shall shine like the sun and our 
garments shall be white as snow. Such is the 
heavenly life, beautiful beyond words, beautiful 
beyond any thing that the heart can feel or the 
imagination picture, beautiful beyond anything 
the most passionate poets have ever dreamed of. 
It is so much fairer than this life, so filled with 
every pure delight and so enduring, that we 
naturally wonder how this life could be a step- 


110 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


ping stone to it, how we could rise to it through 
this life, it is so perfect and this one so imper¬ 
fect. We wonder at that, and we ask how can 
it he. But our wonder ceases when we recog¬ 
nize the power of God in the workings of the 
laws of nature. Look at the flower. Who would 
think that a thing so lowly could become so 
beautiful, so sweet, so fragrant, so charming to 
the eye! Who would think that such splendors 
were wrapped up in it! Remember it is God 
who makes the transformation and so it is God 
who transforms a good life in this world into 
the glories and splendor of life everlasting. God 
has ordered things that way, and while we may 
wonder and marvel how it is, or by what means 
it is accomplished, the truth remains that life 
everlasting or life in heaven will he the outcome 
of a good life here, just as the fair bloom is the 
outcome of the life of the flower. 

There is, however, a unity between the 
heavenly life and this life, as there is a unity 
between the flower and its bloom. Each flower 
brings forth a bloom peculiar to its species, and 
even among the same species, no two flowers 
are precisely alike. They vary in size, and 
form, and color, and fragrance. Still every 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


Ill 


bloom is a natural development of the flower. 
It is the product or fruit of the flower’s growth, 
and the variance of one from another is but the 
result of varying condition in the flower’s life. 
Whatever it takes into its life, that it will give 
forth in its maturity. 

In much the same way our heavenly life is 
an outgrowth of this life, not a natural but a 
supernatural outgrowth. They are two distinct 
and separate things, but are so joined and har¬ 
monized that the life to come might be said to 
be a supernatural sequence to this life. The 
laws by which the one flows from the other are 
not natural but supernatural, that is, they are 
above nature, they are heavenly laws, laws of 
grace, but still real laws fixed and determined 
by God for the government of His heavenly 
kingdom. 

For that reason the beauty and perfection of 
our heavenly life will depend on the beauty and 
perfection of our life here. a In My Father’s 
house there are many mansions,” that is, man¬ 
sions of varying splendor. Accordingly, if we 
build well here we shall have a bright mansion 
there. "For star differeth from star in glory. 
So also is the resurrection of the dead.” 


112 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


No two stars shine with the same brilliancy. 
Each has its own wealth of light. So shall our 
joy in heaven be in exact proportion to our 
wealth of good deeds or our treasures of merit 
accumulated in this life. The idea is illustrated 
by the parable of the talents. The servants who 
made good use of the talents given them were 
commended and placed over important charges, 
whereas the one who buried his talent and made 
no use of it, but carried it back just as he had 
received it, was rebuked and punished. Our 
lives are like talents entrusted to us, and we 
must make the best possible use of them, devel¬ 
oping the good that is in them and suppressing 
the evil, drawing out in them the divine, the 
god-like, and thereby fitting them for habitation 
in the heavenly court. In exact proportion as 
we do that, shall our heavenly life be glorious. 

We rejoice at the blooming of a flower. We 
watch and wait for it. Suddenly some morn¬ 
ing when we go to it we find to our great sur¬ 
prise and joy that its petals are burst forth, its 
face is radiant with beauty and its sweetness 
is in the air around. We are glad, we rejoice. 
But when a good life blooms into everlasting 
life, we grieve. How is that ? It is because we 


WHAT THE FLO WEE TEACHES. 


113 


do not realize what death is. We take it to be 
utter extinction, but it is not. It is transforma¬ 
tion and not extinction. It is rising up to 
something fairer and better, not sinking back 
into nothingness. It is not the folding of wings 
forever, but their spreading out into a purer air, 
beneath a wider and brighter sky. 

The flower is not uprooted in its blooming, 
neither is human life destroyed in death. It 
goes through the dark gate to emerge into larger 
life. Truly can the good man say: 

“0 grave where is thy victory! 

0 death where is thy sting!” 

Faith, and hope, and a wealth of good living 
rob the grave of victory and take the sting from 
death. 

If we could see death in this light, we would 
not grieve at the death of the good, but would 
rather rejoice. The Church inculcates this 
view of death. The burial service of infants 
who die with their baptismal innocence untar¬ 
nished, is a song of gladness. The priest puts 
on white robes, and the words of the ritual are 
those of rejoicing. In like manner the Church 
does not celebrate the birthday of the saints, 


114 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


but the day of their death. That is the most 
important day in their lives, the happy, blessed 
day when they came into possession of the heav¬ 
enly life. The Church does not celebrate their 
birth in the natural life, but she celebrates their 
birth into the supernatural or heavenly life. In 
the eyes of the Church, therefore, death is not 
the cold, dark shadow of evening, but the 
bright, happy glow of morning, the herald of a 
new and eternal day. 

Let not thy spirit be depressed or thy heart 
be sad if death takes away a good life that has 
become entwined in thine. Death is not so 
cruel as we would make it. Death is not a 
dark but a bright angel. He comes with the 
light of heaven on his face. To the good and 
true he comes with a glad message. He comes 
to call us to everlasting life. Happy shall we 
be, if when the call comes we are ready. 

“Why should we fear the beautiful angel Death, 
Who waits us at the portal of the skies, 

Ready to kiss away the struggling breath, 

Ready with gentle hands to close our eyes? 

Thine eyes are blinded or they would see 

The treasures that wait thee in the far off skies, 

And Death, thy friend, will give them all to thee. ’ 9 


WHAT THE FLOWER TEACHES. 


115 


It is the duty of all to strive to make the 
very best of this present life, to enrich it with 
all possible strength, and power, and goodness, 
to make it such as will not only satisfy God, but 
will please and delight Him. It is God’s will 
that our lives should approach as nearly to His 
own as human limitations will permit. For 
that reason He made us in His image, and 
placed in us the duty to draw the image out 
into brighter and clearer outlines. All experi¬ 
ences of life help towards that end, if we but 
utilize them properly. All life is a school and 
we are pupils studying God’s truth, training 
ourselves in God’s way, drawing out and beauti¬ 
fying and perfecting ourselves according to the 
rules of conduct He has laid down for us, and 
according to the example He has set before us 
in the person of His divine Son. Life is not a 
struggle, therefore, for anything temporal or 
material, but is rather like a course of schooling 
or a process of training under God’s guidance 
to fit us for everlasting life. 


THE SINLESS CHEIST. 


/^HEIST’S life was entirely without sin. He 
was perfect in all things. He never did, 
or said, or thought anything that was evil. His 
words and deeds shine like great lights in the 
world. They brighten the dark way for us. He 
did the will of His heavenly Father. “Not My 
will,” He said, “but Thine be done.” He was 
obedient unto death, even to the death of the 
cross. At the transfiguration a voice from 
heaven was heard saying, “This is My beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God the 
Father rejoiced in Christ Jesus. All heaven 
rejoiced. His life was so beautiful and perfect 
that it filled heaven with rejoicing. He wrote 
down His life without a blot upon the page. 
The most hostile eyes have searched that page 
and could not find a single stain upon it. It has 
been read and re-read by many for no other 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


11? 

purpose than to discover and expose some im¬ 
perfection in it, but in vain. It is a page of 
immaculate whiteness. True, Christ was the 
Son of God, and therefore divine, and in the 
very nature of things could not commit sin, for 
sin can be affirmed only of creatures and 
not of God; hut He had a human nature like 
ours, had a body and soul like ours, and went 
through trials and sorrows similar to those 
which come to us. While He was true God, He 
was also true man; and through all the vicissi¬ 
tudes of His life, His humanity shone forth 
with the same absolute sinlessness as His di¬ 
vinity. 

Christ told us to walk in His footsteps, and 
to he like Him. He told us to follow Him. He 
told us to learn of Him. “An example I give 
you,” He said, “that as I have done, so do you.” 
To be like Christ we should be without sin. So 
far as there is sin in our souls, so far are we un¬ 
like Him. Every sin that adheres to us ren¬ 
ders us more and more unlike Christ. Even 
the most trifling fault, the simplest act of wrong 
doing, adds to the difference between Him and 
us. Alas, is there any resemblance at all in any 
of us to the sinless Christ? Since sin is so 


118 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


common, since everybody is infected by it, who 
is there among us can be like unto Him! This, 
however, should be remembered, that they who 
are the deepest in sin are farthest from any 
likeness to Him, while they whose sins are least 
are nearest to such likeness. The nearer we 
approach to sinlessness, the more the resem¬ 
blance to Him grows in us. The more perfect 
the life, the more perfect the image. We are 
painting Christ’s life in our life. The colors 
we use are our daily thoughts, and words, and 
actions. According as they are good, the pic¬ 
ture will be true and real. If they are wholly 
good, without any element whatever of evil in 
them, then will the picture show forth Christ 
most perfectly. His divine face will shine out 
clearly with a halo of light around it, and those 
who look upon it will know it to be the face of 
Christ. 

As far as sin is concerned, we might divide 
people into four classes. 

First, there are those who have sinned and 
find pride in so doing. They rejoice in their 
iniquity. Many criminals are of this kind. 
They think it a glory to do shocking and fiend¬ 
ish things. Conscience is dead in them. It is 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


119 


buried deep down in the ruin they have wrought 
in their lives. They are the most perverted of 
human beings. They have sunk to the lowest 
depths. They are as far from being like Christ 
as darkness is from day, as far as the east is 
from the west. They are like the demons that 
roam the dismal shores. God pity them. If 
any such are saved, it will be only through a 
miracle of grace. 

Secondly, there are those who, having sinned, 
are indifferent about it. They are not worried 
or bothered over it, and are making no effort to 
better themselves. They have drifted into that 
way of living and are satisfied to continue so. 
Their wicked habits have sunk so deep into 
them that they have become a permanent form 
of character. Their habits are as a second na¬ 
ture. They are “corrupt and content,” which 
is a condition as hopeless as it is vicious. They 
are like stones cast into the mire, and are just 
as satisfied to remain there as the stones are. 
The stones are not troubled by the mire around 
them, and do not try to get up out of it; neither 
are these people troubled by their sins nor do 
they try to get loose from them. 


120 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


Most people of this kind are non-religious. 
They have no religion and do not want any. 
They lead what we might call a purely material 
life. Their thoughts never reach out beyond 
the horizon of the earth. God is over them and 
looking down on them and following their every 
footstep, but they are deaf to His voice and ob¬ 
livious of His presence. For them there is no 
God and no hereafter. The present is all with 
them. With the pagan they exclaim, “Let us 
eat and drink to-day, for to-morrow we die.” 
Most of those who are indifferent to sin are of 
this character. They are material, earthly, and 
live only for what comfort and pleasure they 
can get out of this life. 

But not all are without religion. Some pro¬ 
fess to he religious and often attend religious 
exercises. If you asked them the particular 
kind of their religion, not a few might answer 
that they are Catholics. We have such Cath¬ 
olics among us. They are not true Catholics, 
but only nominal Catholics. They are Cath¬ 
olics just in name, nothing more. To be a true 
Catholic is to be a true Christian, and to be a 
true Christian is to be Christ-like, that is, to 
present to some extent, at least, the image of 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


121 


Christ’s life in our life. The nominal Catholic 
is precisely like those who have no religion 
whatever, with this difference, that he adds to 
his other sins the sin of hypocricy. 

Eeligion with such people is merely a pre¬ 
tense. There is nothing real or substantial 
about it. It is only a cloak put on for the sake 
of appearance. It does not reach into or affect 
the life. It does not touch the heart. It has 
no influence on conduct, and when a person’s 
religion has no influence on his conduct, his 
religion is a sham. It is a fraud. Every man 
ought to march under his true colors. He 
should not borrow the Christian colors and 
march under them, when he does not belong in 
the Christian ranks, and nobody belongs in the 
Christian ranks who has not in his heart a sin¬ 
cere desire to be like Jesus Christ. 

Those, therefore, who are in sin and are in¬ 
different to it, who are not disturbed by it, who 
do not feel ashamed or humiliated by it, who 
do not feel any twangs of sorrow or regret, who 
walk proudly among their fellowmen, and smile, 
and talk, and enjoy life, despite the blackness 
that is in their hearts, these persons are in no 
way like Christ. There is nothing in them like 


122 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


Christ, no matter whether they profess any 
religion or not, no matter whether they go to 
church or not, no matter whether they bend the 
knee or not, no matter whether they say, “Lord, 
Lord/’ or not, no matter; there is no trace in 
them of the image of Christ as long as they are 
in sin and satisfied. 

Thirdly, there are those, who, though falling 
often, are worried about their sins and are 
anxiously and earnestly striving to do better. 
When a person is sick he is troubled in mind, is 
fearful of the outcome and is seeking various 
means to effect his cure. Often he is discour¬ 
aged and imagines he will not recover. It fre¬ 
quently happens, too, that his recovery is so 
slow that he does not perceive his gradual im¬ 
provement. This is a fair description of the 
spiritual state of the class of people of whom I 
am speaking. They are in sin and are dissatis¬ 
fied. They would rather be free from it. They 
would gladly cast it off. They feel that it is 
something which defiles and disfigures, some¬ 
thing which lowers and degrades them. It is 
like a stain upon the clothing or a blotch upon 
the face, and they are anxious to remove it. 
They do not rest easy while it clings to them. 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


123 


They have that divine discontent which is like 
a spur urging them onward and upward to bet¬ 
ter things. 

Besides being dissatisfied, they are afraid. 
They are afraid of God’s anger. They realize 
that God is angry with them, and they are in 
dread of His judgments. He may send sorrow 
or misfortune to them. He may send death to 
them. They see others punished, and why 
should not the same punishment come to them ? 
They are afraid to lie down to sleep, to under¬ 
take a journey, to begin any work or enterprise 
with these sins upon their souls. They are 
afraid of any accident which might result in 
their death, for then their sins would go with 
them before the judgment seat, and the long 
years of eternity would bring no joy to them 
but only misery and pain. 

And not only are they dissatisfied and afraid, 
but they are striving to get free from their sins. 
At times they succeed in extricating themselves, 
and they feel happy, and there is gladness in 
their faces and a joyous ring in their voices. 
The earth is fair and the heavens are bright. 
But again they fall and the struggle to rise 
begins anew. The same dissatisfaction, the 


124 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


same fears, the same wrestling, and lighting, 
and battling for freedom. Nor are they neglect¬ 
ful of the means which God has given them to 
combat sin. They pray and attend to their 
religious obligations. Yet, in spite of all this, 
their falls are frequent. The reason of their 
many failures is that their striving is not suffi¬ 
cient, they do not strive with all their might, 
or they depend too much upon themselves and 
too little upon God, or they do not use to full 
advantage the means of grace which God has 
given them. They are working in the right 
direction, but they do not work hard enough. 
They strike half-hearted blows. They do not 
lay the ax to the root. The love of Christ is in 
their hearts, but it is a weak and delicate flame. 
It has not yet become in them a consuming fire. 
They need more courage, more self-forgetful¬ 
ness, more will power. They have yet to learn 
that they who would be perfect must stand like 
a wall of stone against temptation, fixed, rigid, 
unmovable, never hesitating, never dallying, 
never compromising, never arguing, never dis¬ 
puting, never considering, but resisting abso¬ 
lutely and unqualifiedly from the very begin¬ 
ning. 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


125 


Nevertheless, these souls are very beautiful, 
not indeed by reason of their sins, but by rea¬ 
son of their strivings against sin, weak and 
imperfect though their strivings may be. They 
are not like Christ in their sins, but they are 
like Him in the efforts they make to resist sin. 
Not in their falling, but in their rising, they 
are like Him. In every regret for the past, in 
every tear of sorrow, in every self-reproach, in 
every sighing and longing for the better life, 
in every struggle with inherent weakness, with 
passion, or wicked habits, or external evil in¬ 
fluences,—in all these things they are like 
Christ. Every one of these acts of the mind or 
heart is a line of light in their lives showing 
forth His blessed image. Christ struggled 
against sin, against the sins of all men, for He 
carried them all on His sacred shoulders. The 
cross was our sins, and He struggled to carry 
that heavy cross. These souls are like Him in 
their struggles against their own sins. Ah, 
though far from perfect, they are beautiful 
souls, beautiful because struggling, struggling 
against the evil that is in them and around 
them, struggling to rise out of an evil past, out 
of an evil present, struggling to lift themselves 


126 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


a step higher. They are looking upward. Their 
thoughts, their hearts, are turned upward. 

And their efforts are not in vain. Their 
struggles will bring fruit. They are advancing 
slowly amid many discouragements up the hard 
way, often apparently retrograding, but on the 
whole advancing, each day a little stronger, each 
night a little higher. God is watching them, 
and when they are weak He reaches out His 
hand to help them. And they never fall but 
He is there to help them rise and to speak to 
them a word of encouragement. There are 
many of those beautiful struggling souls around 
us, and as God helps them so should we try to 
help them. Never put a stumbling block in 
anybody’s way. Never reach out your hand to 
impede, but always to help your weak neighbors. 

Fourthly and finally, there are those who 
are so perfect in their way of living, so cour¬ 
ageous in resistance, so firm and rigid in the 
right, that they are practically without sin. 
They go for long periods of time and fail in 
nothing beyond the most trifling things. They 
would cheerfully give their life rather than do 
any serious wrong. They love Jesus Christ 
above all else. They would give up all for Him. 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


127 


These are saints. There are saints to-day in 
the world as in all times past. It is one of the 
marks of the true Church that she would have 
within her fold numerous saints, and not all 
the saints are housed in seclusion or belong to 
a past generation. Many of them mingle to-day 
with the multitude. You pass them on the 
street; you meet them in their homes. You 
may know them as aquaintances, but you seldom 
know them as saints. Their sanctity is hidden 
usually under a heavy veil. It is like those 
flowers that bloom in secret places and in deep 
shadows. The saints walk silently through life. 
Their manner is meek, their voices low, their 
footsteps scarcely heard. 

The priest often meets these saints, and he 
is able to recognize them better than others can. 
There are two places where the priest meets 
them, in the confessional and at the bed of death. 
ITe meets them there and speaks to them, and 
they speak to him. And the priest is always 
better for having met them. He goes away 
stronger, more courageous and more zealous 
than before. His heart and life seem renewed 
in their presence. That is why the priest loves 
the confessional and the sick call. He loves 


128 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


those silent walks by the fountain of penance 
and the gate of death, for he often meets there 
God’s saints. He meets them there in the quiet¬ 
ness and stillness and deep shadows that en¬ 
velop those sacred places. 

These saints are like Christ. His image 
shines forth most perfectly in them. Their 
lives are a true reflection of His. They are 
walking along the very way which He walked. 
They are wandering neither to the right nor to 
the left, but are keeping carefully in His foot¬ 
steps. They are looking out for His footsteps, 
and they know them and follow them. Nothing 
can turn them from that beautiful path of light, 
the path which Christ trod, which is hallowed 
by the touch of His feet and consecrated by the 
sacred dew of His blood. 

Those saints are the fairest among the sons 
and daughters of men. They are the flower of 
the race. Blessed is the earth that carries them. 
Blessed is the air they breath. Blessed is the 
community that contains them. Blessed is the 
house of God within whose walls they come! 

We are all called to be saints. If we did 
our whole duty to God, every one of us would 
be a saint. If we are not saints, we are just so 


THE SINLESS CHRIST. 


129 


far lacking in what we ought to be. Christ’s 
mission to earth was to make saints of us. The 
labors of His life, His preaching and miracles 
were directed to making saints of us. All the 
sufferings of His agony and death were endured 
that we might become saints. All the graces 
that He merited for us were to assist us in be¬ 
coming saints. His repeated calls to us to fol¬ 
low Him, meant that we should be perfect as 
He was, and therefore saints. The Church 
which he founded and over which He presides 
as its invisible head, was designed to point out 
to us the way to sanctity, and to lead and help 
us along towards that end. And it is a fact 
which should be well borne in mind, that saints 
we must be before we can enter the kingdom of 
heaven. Hone but saints can pass the gates of 
heaven. Only saints can partake of heaven’s 
bliss. Only saints can see God and enjoy Him. 
Heaven is for saints and no one else. It is for 
the undefiled; it is for the pure of heart; it is 
for those who carry in them the simplicity and 
innocence of little children. It is for saints 
and for them alone. As you cherish a hope of 
some day enjoying God in heaven, so should 
you bear in your breast the ambition to become 


130 SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 

a saint. Without that ambition and without 
the effort and striving necessary to its realiza¬ 
tion, the hope of heaven is vain as an idle 
dream. 


XI. 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


RE you searching for happiness? Come 



** and I will show you where to find it. 
Come with me away into the long ago and over 
the seas to a far land, where the cedars are on 
the hills, and the fishermen are casting their 
nets, and the sower is in the field. We go along 
together by the shore of a lake. Before us is 
a hillside, and a throng of people, and there is 
One speaking to them. He is saying, “Come 
to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and 
I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, 
and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble 
of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. 
For My yoke is sweet and My burden light.” 

Happiness is in walking with Christ the 
same as if you were yoked with Him, going 
where He goes, doing what He does, and hav¬ 
ing the same mind and heart. Happiness is in 


132 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


loving Jesus Christ, in loving the things which 
He loved, and in doing the things which He did. 

We are always seeking happiness. This is 
the one thing we always want, the one thing we 
are always reaching out for, always craving for. 
The bee goes from flower to flower through the 
whole summer day, searching for honey and 
never tiring in the ceaseless search; so the 
human heart desires happiness and puts forth 
unceasing efforts to obtain it. Everything we 
do, every act we perform, every word we utter, 
every plan or scheme we formulate, every aim, 
every project, every ambition, has for its final 
end our happiness. Like the winds that are for¬ 
ever seeking repose, ever trying to settle into 
calmness, like the swift moving stars that are 
ever looking forward to a far-off day of final 
rest, when the toil of the long course will be 
over, so man in all his efforts and strivings, has 
one great object in view, and that is his happi¬ 
ness. 

This is a universal law. We could not if we 
would do otherwise. Even those things which 
seem to make against all happiness, we do, nev¬ 
ertheless, for happiness’ sake. What does the 
suicide seek in self-destruction? Happiness. 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


133 


He thinks he will find in death release from 
misery. It is a delusion, a terrible delusion; 
it is a form of insanity, but it shows the awful 
lengths to which sad hearts will go in search of 
happiness. Oftentimes we labor for the hap¬ 
piness of others and seemingly sacrifice our¬ 
selves in doing so, but in that very sacrifice of 
ourselves we find the happiness our own hearts 
crave. The soldier dies on the battle-field for 
his country’s good, not as a hireling, but as a 
patriot, buoyed up by the noble sentiments of 
patriotism, but he is happy. He sees his gap¬ 
ing wounds, he sees his flowing blood, he feels 
the fatal weakness stealing on, the ebbing of the 
life tide, the flickering of the life flame, but he 
is happy. He dies for his country, and, next 
to death for God, that is the sweetest, noblest 
death which mortal lips can taste. 

So we are all seeking happiness and at all 
times, and no two in the same way. Each pur¬ 
sues the white phantom by a different course. 
You have seen the birds start southward at the 
coming of the winter. Each species, each group, 
often each individual bird, takes a particular 
course in the long flight to the southland. Ho 
two cleave the air along precisely the same line. 


134 SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 

Often those that caroled together in the same 
grove are miles apart in the southern flight. 
Yet they have all the same object in view,—the 
fair groves, and flowery meadows, and balmy 
skies of the south. So it is with us seeking hap¬ 
piness ; we go by different ways, each following 
the peculiar bent which nature gives him. 

Now, before all heaven, I have no hesitancy 
in saying that without the love of Christ in our 
hearts we will search in vain for true, lasting 
happiness. Without that love in our hearts, 
life, no matter how prosperous, no matter how 
full of interest and splendor, will be secretly 
bitter. Without that love, life when examined 
carefully will be found to be empty and void, 
a shell without meat. 

You may think I exaggerate, but I do not. 
What I have said is the truth as God gives me 
to know it, as my experience so far in life gives 
me to know it, as all that I ever read in hooks or 
heard from human lips gives me to know it. T 
am sure it is the truth. The love of Jesus 
Christ is the secret and soul of all true happi¬ 
ness, here and hereafter, on earth as it is in 
heaven. We were all made for a definite end. 
We were made for God; and no matter what we 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


135 


do, or how we strive to adjust ourselves, or 
what drugs of circumstance, or stimulants of 
ambition, or opiates of luxury we administer to 
ourselves, we cannot find perfect peace of heart 
and calmness of soul without the love of Jesus 
Christ. We search in vain for that gladness of 
being or joy of living, which is not for an in¬ 
stant only, hut continues for a long time, con¬ 
tinues through reverses, and troubles, and mis¬ 
fortunes, continues through sorrows, and tears, 
and scourging, without the love of Jesus Christ. 
In that love all things, whether of good report or 
evil report, whether helpful or hurtful, in that 
love all things are changed as by a divine alche¬ 
my into gladness. The sunlight shining through 
the storm paints a rainbow on the sky, and so 
we, looking up to heaven, up to God, through 
the storm of our tears can always see there the 
blessed rainbow of divine peace. We were made 
for God, and we cannot be content away from 
Him, no more than the waters of the earth can 
rest easy away from the ocean’s bosom. The wa¬ 
ter that is in every stream and passing cloud is 
ever striving and struggling, ever pressing and 
pushing on, to get back to the quiet ocean, and 
we might say that it never rests, it never sleeps 


136 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


till it puts its head on the ocean’s breast. So 
with us, we cannot rest away from God. His 
love is the only pillow on which our weary, 
tired heads can sleep with peace. In every other 
pillow, no matter how soft and beautiful, no 
matter how bright to the eye, or pleasing to the 
touch, we will find deep down in it somewhere 
a thorn, and in some sad hour we will waken in 
pain. 

The builder carves a stone for a particular 
place and sets it there. It fits that place and 
no other. In that place it harmonizes with the 
rest of the building, and gives to the whole an 
appearance of finish and completeness. In any 
other place it would be an ugly thing and would 
destroy the beauty of the whole structure. How 
God is the Creator of the universe, and like the 
builder carving the stone, He has created each 
of us for a particular purpose. That purpose 
is first of all that we might love Him. We are 
the only beings that love with a free, rational 
love. God wants that love. He wants it just 
as you want happiness. Without that love in 
our hearts, we are like the stone in the wrong 
place. The stone cannot find a fitting place 
anywhere except the place designed by the 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


137 


builder, and so we cannot rest easily anywhere, 
except in the love of God and of Jesus Christ. 

I know that those who have a great deal of 
this world’s goods, who have wealth, and power, 
and influence, and are courted, and flattered, 
and admired, such people are thought to he par¬ 
ticularly happy and are envied by those less 
fortunate. But, all that we see in the lives of 
these people is merely the shallow, glittering 
surface. Could we but look into the inner cham¬ 
ber of their hearts, where the locked-up secrets 
of life are, secrets which no eye sees but their 
own, could we but look away down deep into 
the hidden heart-recesses of these people, we 
would find there oftentimes much gloom and 
sadness, often bitter tears, and murmurings, and 
anxieties, and agonies, which make life a bur¬ 
den and worldly goods a mockery. You cannot 
judge the inner by the outer life. In the heart 
of the sun there are raging storms though its 
face is fair. 

But you say there is joy in doing good, in 
helping your neighbor, in lifting up the fallen, 
in giving comfort to the sorrowful. It is true 
there is joy in these things, but the joy comes 


138 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


from God’s approval of them, from the con¬ 
sciousness that we are doing them for God, that 
they are pleasing to Him, and that He is weav¬ 
ing a crown in heaven for those who do them. 
Put God aside and cast out His love from your 
heart, and the joy of doing good vanishes, 
just as the light and warmth of day vanish with 
the setting sun. You never feel much satisfac¬ 
tion in any success in life, in securing, for in¬ 
stance, some special honor, when you are alone, 
when all those near and dear to you are gone, 
when every heart which would be delighted at 
any honor coming to you is silent and cold, 
sleeping under the sod and the dew. Standing 
thus alone, stripped of every one who loves you 
and whom you love, like a lone tree stripped 
of its foliage and left naked and hare in the 
winter storm, you cannot feel much joy then in 
anything. Nothing is any good then. You 
could sit down then and weep in the moment of 
victory, for victory has lost its charm, and 
achievements and honors have no value. The 
reason is because there is no one you love to ap¬ 
preciate them, and the cold appreciation of the 
stranger you do not care for. So it is in doing 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


139 


good without God. There is no voice then from 
heaven saying, “Well done.” There is no smile 
in the leaden sky, and no hand reaching out a 
crown from above. 

So perverted is the human mind that there 
are those who would seek happiness, not indeed 
in doing good, but in doing evil, pandering to 
the passions, setting aside moral restraints, and 
defying the laws of God and man. Our first 
parents sought happiness in the forbidden fruit, 
and, as if from an inherited nature, many have 
sought it ever since in things forbidden. Older 
people know well that there is only misery and 
pain in evil, that no happiness ever comes out 
of it; that it is just a thorn in the pillow, a 
poison in the blood; that it perverts, and 
withers, and ruins life. Older people know 
that, for they have seen the wrecks along the 
way, beautiful lives wrecked and ruined by 
evil doing, like flowers touched by the frost. 
But the young do not know it. Would to God 
they could learn it without the danger and the 
agony of a sad and awful experience! Would 
to God that all men and women could learn 
now, would that I could burn into their minds 


140 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


and hearts this lesson forever that the fruit of 
evil doing is only pain, that at the bottom of 
every forbidden cup there is the bitterness of 
gall, the bitterness of the salt sea! 

So the way to God and the way to happiness 
are one and the same. They lead along by the 
same fields, and around the same mountains, 
and on and up by the same shining stars. It 
is the way of truth and right, the way of all 
that is good and holy, and noble, and beautiful; 
that is the way that leads to God, and the same 
way leads to happiness here and hereafter. 

“Come to Me,” said Jesus Christ, “all you 
who labor and are heavy burdened and I will 
refresh you.” That was a call to happiness. 
He was calling the weary, heart-sick world to 
happiness; calling all men, all generations, all 
classes; calling the rich and the poor, the young 
and the old; calling them all to happiness. 
“Come to Me and I will give you rest.” Come 
to Me, that is, give Me thy heart, thy love, and 
thou shalt be happy no matter what thy lot or 
condition, no matter what fortune or misfortune 
comes to thee, no matter if sickness and sorrow 
come, no matter,—come to Me, give Me thy 


HAPPINESS IN HIS LOVE. 


141 


heart, and thou shalt be happy; and the lamp 
of thy happiness will burn not only in life but 
in death. It will burn forever before the face 
of God. 


XII. 


THE POOR NOT INFERIOR. 

r I 'HE chief of the Apostles, St. Peter, tells 
us to honor all men. In the eyes of God, 
all men are equally dear. The Son of God, in 
the Redemption, singled out no class or section 
of humanity on whom to bestow His blessings. 
Like the shower and the sunlight, His coming 
was for all. His love embraced the whole 
human family. The Church which He founded 
was for the Gentile as well as for the Jew, for 
the bondman as well as for the free. It was to 
extend from the rising to the setting sun, and 
at its altar the lowest and the highest would 
have equal privileges. Christ, by His teaching 
and example, sought to lift all men to a common 
level, and to bind them one to another by the 
ties of sympathy and love. In this as in all 
things else, true religion and right reason har¬ 
monize. What is it in man that commands re- 


THE POOR NOT INFERIOR. 


143 


spect? Without a doubt it is that which makes 
him a man, his immortal soul. Take that from 
him and he no longer elicits our admiration; 
he becomes as the dumb brute or the inanimate 
clay. Now, the soul is essentially the same in 
every way, having the same affections, the same 
faculties, the same undying life, the same eter¬ 
nal hope. That fact should lead us to look upon 
our fellow man as the counterpart of ourselves, 
not as a strange being in whom we have no in¬ 
terest or concern, but as a brother whose life is 
intimately interwoven with our own, whose 
heart, like ours, responds to every touch of joy 
or pain, and to whom, as to us, happiness is 
sweet and sorrow bitter. 

The world, always blind and unreasonable, 
is constantly striving to divide the race into 
warring classes. It delights in drawing lines of 
distinction, separating men from men, and 
thereby begetting jealousy and hatred. Away 
back in pagan times, a barrier was lifted up 
between the rich and the poor. Wealth was 
made the criterion of worth, and poverty be¬ 
came a stigma of shame. The efforts of Chris¬ 
tianity to remove it or beat it down have not 
been entirely successful. It remains still. Even 


144 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


in this land, where we profess to accord equal 
rights and privileges to all, the barrier exists. 
As Dr. Brownson once said, “We have not a 
political aristocracy, but we have a money aris¬ 
tocracy,” which is a thousand times worse. 
Here as elsewhere, “every door is barred with 
gold and opens but to golden keys.” Society is 
graded like seats in a theatre, and as money 
buys the best seat, so money lifts the individual 
to the highest social rank. Look for the poor 
man’s place in society and where do you find it ? 
Away down in the lowest strata. As his money 
goes, he sinks. Should fortune change and 
wealth return, he rises up. The measure of his 
means is too often the measure of respectability 
accorded to him. He is superior or inferior ac¬ 
cording as he is rich or poor. 

This is one of the most painful, as well as 
one of the most dangerous features of poverty. 
Far be it from me to attempt to minimize in 
anyone’s estimation the physical sufferings of 
the poor. The pains of want none fully know 
save those who have endured them. To be 
without sufficient food or nourishment, to have 
no home, no bright fireside where happy faces 
await you, no sacred spot which you can call 


THE POOR NOT INFERIOR. 


146 


jour own, to have arms that are strong and 
willing to work, but no work to do; who can tell 
the sorrow, the anguish which such conditions 
must arouse in a brave and honest breast! In 
these very days that are now passing over us, 
there are many true and good men with large 
families, who would weep with gladness if they 
only had employment. Every morning before 
dawn in the pinching frost they hurry away, 
traveling from place to place but without avail, 
and night after night return foot-sore and 
weary, meeting their laughing children with a 
tear, and sitting down sadly at a cold hearth, 
hoping against hope. Not to pity such condi¬ 
tions, not to be moved by such sufferings, would 
be inhuman. Yet on poverty’s hard road there 
are, I think, sharper stones than these. Let the 
poor man of noble, independent spirit speak, 
and he will say, “I can bear the pinching pains 
of hunger, I can bear to be poorly clothed or 
poorly housed, I can bear to search for work 
and find none, or to labor through long weary 
hours for little pay, but I cannot bear to be 
despised. Rather let a man strike me than 
scorn me.” Withou a doubt there is nothing so 
bitter and unendurable to the poor man, as this 


146 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


contempt of the rich, this brand of inferiority 
which a money worshipping world has burnt 
into his brow. 

Our reputation is a treasure of great value. 
It is “the immediate jewel of our soul.” The 
loss of it is a serious calamity, but especially to 
him who suffers it unjustly. It is not easy to 
realize the torment such a person endures. He 
is convinced of his own honesty and upright¬ 
ness. From his conscience comes no voice of 
reproval or rebuke. Yet he is shunned. He is 
met only with looks of scorn. Within his own 
breast all is fair and beautiful, but without a 
veritable tempest of hate is raging. How, some¬ 
what similar, only more humiliating, is the 
position of the poor. Their lives are passed in 
silence and obscurity. They are little known, 
little thought of, little cared for. Their chil¬ 
dren grow up and receive upon their shoulders 
the same burden of wretchedness which their 
parents laid down. On through the generations 
this dismal procession of suffering humanity 
sweeps. They are not ignorant of the hard lot 
to which they have been doomed. They not 
only see but feel the misery of their position, to 
which they are often chained through no fault 


THE POOR NOT INFERIOR. 


147 


of theirs, but which instead of exciting the 
world’s sympathy, arouses the world’s scorn. 
The good man whose reputation has been 
blasted, is accounted a criminal though guiltless 
of wrong; the poor man, though he may have 
striven ever so hard to better his condition, 
though his heart be as pure as the falling snow, 
and his mind as lofty as the stars, is set down 
as one of the lower classes. His clothing, his 
dwelling, his occupation, his slight income, his 
want of life’s luxuries, are the evidences of his 
inferiority. To a person who respects himself 
and is sensible of shame, this sneer of the world 
is as sharp as a serpent’s tooth. It doubles the 
pangs of poverty. It thrusts upon the bent and 
bleeding shoulders of the poor a second burden 
more galling even than the first. It adds ignom¬ 
iny to want. It adds shame to hunger and 
nakedness. 

The world has yet many important lessons 
to learn, chief among them is this one, that true 
excellence lies not so much in having as in be¬ 
ing, not so much in what we possess as in what 
we are. Everywhere about us, men are seek¬ 
ing knowledge, seeking power, seeking money, 
as if all that is good and worthy in life came 


148 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


from without. It is a fatal mistake. Knowl¬ 
edge is most excellent. Power is good when 
rightly exercised. Money is useful and neces¬ 
sary. Yet all these things do not make the true 
man. A person may have all these and still be 
despicable. They are ornaments to excellence, 
but they are not excellence. What then is ex¬ 
cellence? It is something we develop from 
within. It is in the heart and conscience. Those 
who have in them true moral worth, who are 
fair-minded, sober, honest, just, patient, chari¬ 
table, and religious, are the pride and glory of 
the race. They are the ones whose names we 
should hold in veneration. They are the heroes 
whose praises we should forever sing. In them 
God’s image is most perfectly drawn out. In 
them more than in great warriors, or statesmen, 
or men of letters, or men of wealth, God sees a 
resemblance to Himself. Upon such men the 
Almighty God looks down with pleasure, and 
to them, I think, as they journey on quietly 
through life, angels build triumphal arches a 
thousand times more beautiful and enduring 
than any which Pome built to her victorious 
generals. There is a lesson which the world 
has yet to learn. Could we but teach it to others 


THE POOR NOT INFERIOR. 


149 


so that all would recognize and practice it, a 
brighter day would dawn for the destitute mil¬ 
lions of our race. They would lift up their 
heads in the light and rejoice, like slaves set 
free, for they would feel in their souls the cheer¬ 
ing conviction that before man, as before God, 
want no longer robs them of worth, nor bars 
them from honor and respectability. 

It is impossible to wholly eradicate poverty. 
As long as there are men, so long shall there be 
poor men. It is a part of the divine plan, and 
it is not entirely an unmixed evil. If all were 
equally well provided for, there would he noth¬ 
ing to stimulate activity, or to arouse noble 
endeavor. There would be no merit to he 
secured by hearing privations patiently, and no 
occasion for the wealthy to give of their sub¬ 
stance to those less fortunate, and no reason for 
kind-hearted men and women to sympathize 
with their brothers in distress. Poverty we can 
not wholly stamp out; it is rooted in nature; 
but one thing we can do, and that is to wash off 
the humble brow of poverty that word inferior, 
which man, not God, has written there. To 
neglect that even while ministering to material 
want, is hardly to practice charity. It is not 


150 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


charity to cast bread to our fellow man as if he 
were an unfeeling being, a shameless creature, 
whose touch is contagion, whose company is 
dishonor. That is not charity, but the veriest 
selfishness. On the contrary, by treating him 
as a man entitled to love and respect, we bestow 
on him, in that alone, an incalculable blessing. 
By so doing we preserve frequently the immortal 
soul from ruin, clothing it with a sense of its 
own excellence, and feeding it with a desire to 
do things great and good. In that lies the most 
perfect charity, and I am glad to know that such 
is the charity which the members of many 
societies among us are practicing. Their work 
is visitation as well as aid. They go among the 
poor, becoming like unto them for the time be¬ 
ing, as Christ became one of us that He might 
the better teach us and lift us up to a purer life. 
There is no work more Christian or God-like 
to which the human hand can he set or the hu¬ 
man heart he dedicated. “We rise by raising 
others, and he who stoops above the fallen, 
stands upright.” 

Money is not the measure of a man! Money 
makes not the miser rich, nor the want of it the 
true man poor.” Charity is God’s own virtue, 


THE POOB NOT INFERIOB. 


151 


and they who have it most, are most like God. 
It becomes the bright scholar better than his 
books, the victorious general better than his 
sword, the crowned monarch better than his 
crown. 


XIII. 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


HERE was once a foolish man who was 



A going into a far land, and he said to him¬ 
self, “I will gather up much treasure, so that 
when I go into the far land I shall have plenty 
for my use and enjoyment/’ Being a strong and 
energetic man, he labored earnestly and dili¬ 
gently and did not spare himself in any way, 
and soon had amassed abundant treasures. He 
was deeply interested in his work and gave his 
whole time to it, neglecting other things. He 
loved his accumulated treasures and in secret 
would often count them over and over. His 
heart was in them. When the time came for 
him to go into the far land, he carefully made 
ready and taking his treasures with him, 
started forth on his journey. He travelled on 
and on, and at last came to a deep, dark valley, 
where the mountains rose up steep on each side 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


153 


and the clouds hung low. It was dark and 
dreary, and there being no one with him, and 
the place being so strange and gloomy, he was 
exceedingly lonely and afraid. His face was 
white with fear, and his limbs shook. At the 
further end of the valley he came to a narrow 
gate. The walls of the valley seemed to come 
together so that the gate was the only exit. It 
was darker here and gloomier, and his fear and 
agitation increased. Just as he approached the 
gate, he noticed at the entrance a deep shadow, 
without definite form, hut seemingly with life, 
for it moved to and fro, in front of the gate. 
Presently the shadow spoke and said, “What 
treasures dost thou carry ? ’ ’ The man answered 
not, for he could not speak with fear. Then the 
shadow said, “Unfold thy treasures that I may 
see.” And the man threw down his burden and 
opened his treasures and spread them out in 
plain view. “They are of no worth,” said the 
shadow. “Cast them aside and continue thy 
way.” And the man passed through the nar¬ 
row gate with a shudder, and went into the far 
land where he was very poor and miserable. He 
was like a beggar, for he had nothing. Sorrow 
and unhappiness pursued him day and night. 


154 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


Now, there was also about that time a wise 
man who likewise was going into the far land, 
and who, too, was anxious to take with him 
abundant treasures. He wanted to have plenty 
and* be happy in the land he was going to. So 
he labored very hard and very judiciously, for 
he was a man of wisdom. He did not spend his 
energies and time in seeking vain and foolish 
things, which many indeed called treasures, but 
which he knew were of little worth, or no 
worth at all; but he sought only these things 
which he felt would be of real benefit to him. 
Many sneered at him, and said, “fool,” but he 
heeded not, and went along quietly, persever- 
ingly, cheerfully, gathering his treasures. At 
first it seemed hard to find the right kind of 
treasures, but after awhile he could find them 
in abundance everywhere; at every step, at 
every turn, he could pick them up. When it 
was time to start into the far land, he had a 
goodly burden, and he went away singing and 
with a glad heart. As he entered the dark val¬ 
ley and saw the mountains rising up on either 
side and the deep gloom, he was not afraid. It 
would only seem natural to be afraid in such 
a lonely place, but somehow this man was not 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


155 


afraid. He went on down through the valley 
without any fear. Coming to the narrow gate 
the shadow stepped forth and spoke to him, 
saying, “What treasures hast thou?” “I will 
show them,” says the man, and with that he 
spread them out. “They are good and whole¬ 
some treasures,” says the shadow. “Take them 
up and carry them with thee and pass on.” And 
that man went on into the far land and was 
happy there beyond anything I could describe. 
He was accounted a very rich man, and the 
measure of his riches was the measure of his 
happiness. 

How, all of us will sometime go into the far 
land. Just as the children of Israel went out 
of Egypt and over the desert to the land of 
promise, just as our fathers left their homes, 
their firesides, their neighbors and friends, and 
those they loved, and came into this land, so 
shall we all go some day into the far land. Hot 
one of us hut shall go. And we shall take our 
treasures with us, each carrying his burden, 
and shall go down the dark valley and to the 
narrow gate and the shadow, and some shall 
drop their treasures there and shall never know 
them again, and shall he poor and unhappy ever 


156 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


afterwards, and shall wander up and down the 
far land, wringing their hands in utter misery 
and wishing they had never been born; and 
some shall carry their treasures with them 
through the narrow gate, and shall he very 
wealthy in the far land, and their hearts shall 
be filled with joy and their joy shall he ever¬ 
lasting. 

It all depends upon the kind of treasures we 
take with us. There are two kinds of treasures, 
those which we can take with us out of this 
world, and those which we cannot. There are 
some plants which, if moved from their native 
climate, wither and die; and others which will 
flourish in any climate; and so there are treas¬ 
ures which are essentially earthly and cannot 
he taken beyond the earth, and if they were 
taken beyond the earth they would he of no use; 
and other treasures which are heavenly in their 
nature and can be taken with us out of this 
world into eternity, and while they are of much 
use to us here, they are of infinitely greater 
value to us there. 

Let us see what some of these earthly treas¬ 
ures are, the treasures which the foolish man 
sought, and which he was obliged to part with 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


157 


at the narrow gate, thereby becoming poor and 
miserable forever. 

No man ever carried gold out of this world. 
No matter bow closely we press it to our bosom, 
no matter bow we weep and rage to part with 
it, we must give it up once and for all at the 
narrow gate. Gold becomes just like clay at the 
narrow gate. It loses all its worth then, and 
all its glitter. It is no better then than the dull 
clod under your foot. There are many who 
make the acquisition of money their chief ob¬ 
ject in life. They live for that end. All their 
efforts are directed to that end. They measure 
their success in life by the money they accumu¬ 
late. They are wealthy, therefore they have 
been successful. Whatever else they are matters 
little; on the fact of their wealth they base 
their claim to success. Look at these men as 
they start out to the far land. Look at them as 
they go down the dark valley. Look at them as 
they stand there at the narrow gate, flinging 
their gold into the dust, and walking on empty 
handed, poor as the day they were born. As 
they pass onward, they realize sadly that they 
have accomplished nothing, that their life has 
been a failure, that it has been fruitless as a 


158 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


dead tree. Sent out to living springs for water, 
they return with empty buckets. Sent forth to 
reap and gather golden grain, they came back 
without a sheaf. 

Did anybody ever carry the praise of men 
out of this world? The shout of applause does 
not follow us to the far land. No voices of men 
reach beyond the narrow gate. I know it is 
good to deserve well of our fellow men, and to 
merit their admiration and esteem, but so far as 
such commendation in itself is concerned, it is 
but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 
Unless God commends, commendation has no 
worth. 

Power to rule nations and sway the multi¬ 
tude, power over things and men is dazzling, 
charming, and the thought of it sets many 
hearts throbbing; but down there in that dark 
valley, scattered about, may be seen the sceptres 
and the crowns of kings, emblems of vanished 
power. Every king who walks along there lays 
down his crown at the narrow gate. Many 
kings have passed there, and just as many 
crowns lie mouldering there. And as with 
kings so with all others. We all pass through 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


159 


that gate stripped of every badge of power and 
weak as little children. 

As to position, I tell you there will be no 
high and no low among us going down the dark 
valley, at least as measured by any earthly 
standards. Princes and beggars will walk to¬ 
gether, and the high born dame with the menial 
she scorned. 

Now, these things, riches, fame, power, posi¬ 
tion, and the like are earthly treasures, and you 
see we have to leave them all at the narrow gate. 
We cannot take them with us beyond the gate. 
As we come up there carrying them, the stern 
voice of the shadow bids us to cast them aside 
and go on without them. 

But there are other treasures in life besides 
these earthly ones. There are treasures here 
which we can take with us on the far journey, 
heavenly treasures, which will remain with us 
always, and will be forever a source of un¬ 
speakable joy. 

I want to tell you what the heavenly treas¬ 
ures are. I want to show them to you so that 
you will know them, and perchance you will 
love them and seek them. They are very sim¬ 
ple things, almost commonplace, but in truth 


160 


SOME INCENTIVES TO EIGHT LIVING. 


they are most beautiful. Indeed, when you see 
them in the right light you will find that they 
shine with a glory that is not of this world. 

Many of you work, no doubt, during the 
day, and last night or some night when you 
came home, you were very tired. Your limbs 
were weary from walking, or standing, or toil¬ 
ing. You wanted rest. You wanted the sweet 
solace of sleep. You were at your bedside and 
your eyelids were drooping, and the thought 
came to you that you were too tired to pray to¬ 
night. But you said, “Ho.” You would say 
your prayers whether tired or not. You would 
feed your hungry soul before you gave the tired 
body rest. And you bent your knees, and 
stirred to devotion your flagging thoughts, and 
fanned up the embers of love in your heart. 
You said your evening prayer, and you said it 
fervently and well. That prayer, breathed by 
tired lips on aching knees, will live forever. It 
will never die. It went away up through the 
stars to the throne of God, and stands there be¬ 
fore Him like a pleading angel, pleading always 
for you. It is one of these heavenly treasures. 
So are all prayers heavenly treasures, all acts 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


161 


of homage paid to God, all worship, all devo¬ 
tion, all movements of the heart to Him. 

You go to the church some Saturday even¬ 
ing, and over in the corner, you see a poor man, 
middle aged, strong in body and plainly dressed. 
He has been there for some time. You notice 
his head is bowed down low and his shoulders 
are shaking as with grief. Why is he grieving ? 
Is it for some misfortune that has overtaken 
him? Some loved one gone forever? Ho, he 
is preparing to go to Confession and he is 
grieving for his sins. He is grieving for having 
offended God or hurt his neighbor. I do not 
know what his sins may be. They may be much 
or they may be little, but I know that those 
tears of sorrow shed for them are treasures more 
precious than rubies or diamonds. They are 
treasures which the angels of God go about 
searching for, and when they find one, they 
hurry back to heaven with it, rejoicing and 
singing sweet songs. 

“Blessed are tears, 

When he who sheds them inward feels 
Some lingering stain of early years 
Effaced by every drop that steals.'’ 


162 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


You are going along the street sometime in 
a hurry. You are on an urgent errand and you 
are pushing rapidly through the great, moving 
throng. As you pass along you notice a poor, 
aged woman, moving in your direction and 
carrying a heavy burden of some kind, too 
heavy for her tottering limbs and wasted 
strength. You are in a hurry, but you stop and 
say, “How far are you going? That burden is 
too heavy for you. Let me carry it for you.” 
And you do so, thinking the while: “Some¬ 
body’s mother, and somebody may help my poor 
mother, old and gray, when her own dear boy 
is far away.” You carry the burden and you are 
glad. All heaven is glad too. The angels are 
clapping their hands. All burdens borne for 
others are heavenly treasures. 

Somewhere in your neighborhood is a poor 
family. They have a house full of little chil¬ 
dren, and the father is sick and there is nothing 
coming in to provide food. You know that they 
are good and worthy people, and you go often 
to visit them during the father’s illness. You 
see they need help, and every time you go over, 
hidden under your cloak, is a bundle of provi¬ 
sions. You may not have very much yourself, 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


163 


but you give part of what you have, and you do 
not go around telling all your neighbors what 
you give. You give it quietly, without any show 
or ostentation, and everything you thus give, 
and any help you thus render, is a heavenly 
treasure. Every time we reach out our hand to 
lift another up, we draw it back filled with 
heavenly treasure. Every time we bend in love 
and sympathy over the weak and fallen, we rise 
up rich in heavenly treasure. 

You are slandered by somebody, your good 
name dragged in the mire, wrongfully, unjust¬ 
ly, maliciously. Instead of striking back or 
seeking revenge, or nourishing ill-will or hatred 
in your heart, you go quietly and peacefully 
along, not returning evil for evil, nor railing for 
railing, but contrariwise blessing, forgiving 
that person, and praying for him. In the quiet 
evening when you are alone, you kneel down at 
your bedside and pray for him. You tell our 
Lord not only that you forgive him, but you ask 
our Lord also to forgive him, and to grant him 
light and grace to see the evil of his ways and 
to turn from them. That is a beautiful spec¬ 
tacle,—somebody hurt, pierced to the quick by 
the sharp arrow of slander, and yet kneeling 


164 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


there all alone, forgiving the slanderer and 
praying for him. That is what the Holy Father 
did immediately after the late attempt upon his 
life in St. Peter’s. We are told that after full 
information had come to him, he instantly knelt 
down and prayed for the one who tried to take 
his life. How, forgiving others, and returning 
good for evil, and bearing wrongs and injuries 
patiently, every such act is a heavenly treasure; 
and so is patience in pain, in sickness, and in 
sorrow. 

I know a man who was one day riding in a 
street car in this city. As he sat in the car, he 
noticed at his feet on the floor a twenty dollar 
bill. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. 
A moment later he walked out on the platform 
to the conductor and asked him if he had lost 
any money. He said, “Ho,” but added that a 
woman, who got off the car half a block back, 
had complained of losing money. “I think I 
see her yonder at the corner,” he said, pointing 
her out and describing her. The man jumped 
from the car and followed the woman till he 
overtook her. He asked if she had lost any 
money. She said she had. “Where did you 
lose it?” “I do not know, possibly in that car 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


165 


which I just left!” “How much did you lose ?” 
“I lost twenty dollars.” “Was it in a single 
bill, or was it in several bills?” “It was in a 
single bill.” “Well,” says the man, “I guess I 
found it. Here it is.” She offered him five 
dollars for returning the money to her, hut he 
said, “Ho, I do not want anything. It was not 
any trouble to me.” And he walked away. 
How, he was a poor man with a wife and fam¬ 
ily, who worked hard for a living, and whose 
weekly wage was less than twenty dollars. But 
he was honest, that is all. Had he been dis¬ 
honest he would have been richer that night by 
twenty dollars, hut he repelled the thought, if 
it came to him, and chose to be honest, and 
thereby he won for himself a heavenly treasure. 
He laid away for himself that day in the vaults 
of heaven a hundred times twenty dollars. And 
the moths won’t eat it there, and the thieves 
will not break in and steal it. Every time we 
resist dishonesty as that man did, we make our¬ 
selves so much richer in heavenly treasures. 
What a blessed thing it is to be rich in that 
way. 

And so I might go on endlessly, telling you 
of these heavenly treasures. Every time we do 


166 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


good, every time we do the right, resisting the 
wrong, every time we overthrow a wicked pas¬ 
sion or habit, every time we think a noble 
thought and wish to be better than we are, 
every time the arms of the soul are stretched up 
towards God, in everything we think, and do, 
and hope for, provided it is good, in all these 
things we are winning for ourselves heavenly 
treasures. Such treasures make the soul beau¬ 
tiful ; and the beauty they give does not tarnish 
in a day, but holds its splendor forever. These 
heavenly treasures are the most precious things 
to he found in this world. Earthly treasures 
are poor and of little worth beside them. You 
can only keep them a short time; very soon at 
the narrow gate you will throw them all aside. 
But the heavenly treasures you can take with 
you and keep always, and nobody can ever take 
them from you, and they will he a great joy to 
you forever. 

I want you to love these heavenly treasures, 
and to try to acquire them as abundantly as 
possible. If you feel that you have no love for 
them, ask God to change your heart and give 
you a heart to love them. God will give you 


HEAVENLY TREASURES. 


167 


that love, if you ask Him on bent knees and 
with a pure intention. 

A long time ago there came into this world 
a wondrous Person who during His whole life 
sought only heavenly treasures. He sought 
them and nothing else. He did not want earth¬ 
ly things; He wanted only the heavenly. At 
the end of His life, the treasures which He had 
accumulated were so many and so precious that 
I could not attempt to describe them to you. 
Ho man could count or measure them or put 
any estimate on their value. And there was 
nothing earthly in them; they were entirely 
heavenly. You know who He was. It was our 
divine Lord. It was Jesus Christ. He lived 
in this world just like us, and loved with all 
Ilis heart the heavenly treasures, and sought 
them with all His strength. He let no day, or 
hour, or moment pass without accumulating 
more and more of them. And He went down 
the dark valley just as we shall do. He went 
down there with bleeding feet, and bleeding 
shoulders, and bleeding temples. His precious 
treasures He carried with Him. And what a 
burden that was! Ho more precious burden 
and none heavier was ever borne on any shoul- 


168 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


ders. It was so heavy He fell beneath it. Just 
see Him there in the dark valley, and coming 
on to the narrow gate, carrying the precious 
burden of all the good wrought by Him, and 
falling under the great weight, and the bloody 
sweat on His brow. 

Let us try to do as He did. Let us work 
hard, gathering heavenly treasures. Let us 
spare no effort, and let us lose no time, and let 
us not suffer ourselves to be drawn away by 
any consideration to other and vain things. Let 
us he like Christ. Let us walk in His footsteps. 
And when at last the time comes for us to go 
into the far land, we shall go with precious 
burdens, which we shall not leave at the narrow 
gate, but shall carry with us through the gate 
and up the heights beyond, where God’s throne 
rises up, and the air is beaten by angel wings, 
and where those who come, rich with the treas¬ 
ures of a well spent life, shall find joy ever- 
1 asting. 


XIV. 

THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 

I T is frequently a great help to us to think of 
the dead. By this I mean that through the 
remembrance of the dead, we will be helped by 
them directly and immediately in this life. 
They will advise, encourage, and cheer us; they 
will he a source of strength and hope to us. 

It may seem strange to hear that the dead 
can help us in that way. Why, you say, the 
dead are in their graves. Their bodies are 
powerless, their voices hushed. They have 
ceased to live among us, and their spirits have 
gone away to a distant land, with a shoreless 
sea between us and them. How can they help 
us ? Well, memory has a wonderful power, a 
kind of divine power. Memory brings the dead 
back to us. It lifts them out of the grave and 
clothes them again with life. It gives them a 
heart and a voice. It peoples the air about us 


170 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


with their invisible forms. In memory the 
dead return and walk with us as our cherished 
companions. They indeed are not dead who 
live in hearts that love them. 

You all know how good it is to have a faith¬ 
ful friend. Such a friend, when once found, 
we are told to grapple to our heart with hooks 
of steel. The best and truest of friends is a 
dear one dead. A dead friend is never false. 
You may change toward him, but he will never 
change toward you. You may neglect and for¬ 
get him, and when your conscience rebukes you 
and you return to the remembrance of him, 
you will find him just the same as when you 
last looked into his dying eyes. 

A dead friend never seeks new acquaint¬ 
ances; he never goes among strangers. He 
clings always to you. You may grow old. Youth 
may leave you. The fresh glow may go from 
your cheeks and your frame become bent and 
feeble. You are not so comely as you were, hut 
the dead do not mind that. They love not less, 
even though youth and beauty are gone. 

The friendship of the living is uncertain. 
Their loyalty is often dependent upon their in¬ 
terest. They stand by us frequently just until 


THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 


171 


we need them, and then we find them wanting. 
“The friends who in the sunshine live when winter 
comes are flown, 

And he who has but tears to give must weep his 
tears alone.” 

A dead friend is as constant as the seasons. 
Through good and evil fortune he remains 
steadfast. He is never angry, never jealous, 
never revengeful, is always patient, always for¬ 
giving. He is as true to you as the sun is to 
the day, or as the stars to the light. 

A dead friend is always watching us. His 
eyes are ever upon us, and he sees right down 
into our hearts. The living know us only by 
our external actions. They hear the words we 
utter and see the works we do, but they cannot 
enter within us. They have no idea of our 
secret thoughts and emotions. The great wide 
world of the mind and heart are like an undis¬ 
covered land to them. We are often very differ¬ 
ent from what they imagine us to be, simply 
because they cannot know us as we are. But a 
dead friend has full knowledge of us. His 
vision sweeps the whole compass of our being. 
His eye is like the eye of God in that respect. 
We cannot hide anything from the dead. 

A dead friend is with us all the time. From 


172 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


our living companions we are often separated. 
They are absent from us frequently for long 
years. Our interests are so varied that each 
one must take his own course, and our paths 
often lead in widely different directions. But 
a dead friend never quits our presence. He is 
always by our side. He is with us in the sun¬ 
shine and the storm. He is with us at our work 
and at our play, and when we sit musing alone 
by the fireside. If we go down into the bosom 
of the earth, or climb the highest mountain, or 
journey across the sea, he follows us. His face 
is ever before us. 

How, a dead friend is a great help to us. 
There are many ways in which he can help us. 
Very frequently we reach a point in life where 
two roads branch out, and we stand there in the 
angle, undecided which road to take. The road 
on the left is smooth and broad, and there are 
many journeying that way, many of our com¬ 
panions, some of our kindred possibly. It is a 
pleasant way, beautiful fields stretch out on 
either side, flowery meadows, sparkling streams, 
groves alive with song. You hear shouts of joy 
coming hack from those who have gone before. 
You hear strains of distant music. It is a very 


THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 


173 


bright way and very tempting, but far beyond 
it leads to a dreary waste, and finally into deep 
darkness, into black night. That is the road 
on the left. 

The one on the right is rough and narrow. 
Sharp stones wound the traveler’s feet and 
thorns pierce them. The fields are uninviting. 
There is no music, no song, no shouts of joy in 
the air. But away beyond, as far as the eye 
can see, there is a glimmer of light. It bright¬ 
ens us as we gaze at it. There is a throne ris¬ 
ing up, and glittering towers and walls of gold. 
That is the road on the right. 

Often in life we stand at the angle of two 
roads like these, considering which we will 
take. We do not know just what to do; or, if 
we know what to do, we are weak and have not 
the courage to do it. Our minds may be so 
confused that we do not see things clearly. We 
turn to those about us and they are heedless or 
trifling. Those whom we know intimately are 
passing on, some one way and some the other. 
It is a supreme moment, a trying moment. So 
much depends upon the next step we take. Oh, 
for a word of advice from some one we love, 


174 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


from some one we can trust, from some one who 
cannot be other than true to us! 

Just then memory summons the dead friend 
and in memory he comes swiftly to us, faithful 
friend, safest of guides, and wisest of coun¬ 
selors. He comes to us and wonders why we 
hesitate. He points to the left and says, “That 
road leads to everlasting ruin. Away beyond 
you see heavy clouds and darkness which is 
nothing else but the gloom of hell, the dark¬ 
ness of eternal death. Do not go that way. It 
will end only in sorrow, and lamentation, and 
weeping, and gnashing of teeth. It will end 
only in an agony of despair so deep, so dark, 
that any sorrow felt in this life would be sweet 
compared with it.” Then the dead friend 
points to the right and says, “That is the road 
for you to follow. It is hard and narrow, but 
it leads to the gates of heaven. It leads to God 
and happiness, endless, eternal, everlasting hap¬ 
piness. It leads to peace, and joy, and love, and 
contentment, and companionship. If you love 
God, if you love your own good, if you love me, 
follow that way.” 

There is a pretty legend about a picture of 
the Madonna in Rome to the effect that on a 


THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 


175 


certain occasion when the Church was severely 
persecuted and the world had grown wicked, 
the picture was seen to weep. Tears rolled 
down the canvas. In the same way a dead 
friend often weeps over the wicked things we 
do. 

Some of you may be addicted to certain 
vices, for example, intemperance, a vice not 
so common now as it used to be, but which still 
wrecks many lives and desolates many homes. 
Well, when you are indulging that vice, and 
your mind has become a blazing furnace of 
emotion, and all your passions are aroused, like 
so many wild beasts released from their cages 
or loosened from their chains, when in that aw¬ 
ful state, a willing prey to any temptation, it 
is possible that you sometimes see looking 
straight in your eyes the weeping face of a 
dear one dead. It may be the face of a little 
child whom you frequently carried in your 
arms, who had often met you at the gate in the 
evening, a bright, little child with a sweet voice 
and ringlets of gold, whom death tore from you 
long ago. In the moment of your shame that 
little face comes back to you, and I am sure 
that under the gaze of that childish face, wet 


176 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


with the dew of tears, you never felt shame so 
deep nor so piercing. I am sure it never burnt 
so into your heart as it does now, with those 
little eyes looking up from the grave at you. 

Here is a young man who has just left his 
angel sister out in the cemetery. She was as pure 
as the falling snow, and as stainless of wrong 
as a shining star. He loved her tenderly, more 
than all else besides, and he left bitter tears on 
her grave. Years pass by. That young man 
has fallen into evil ways. He has met with 
wicked companions, and has become as one of 
them. In a moment of thoughtfulness, the dead 
face of his sister comes back to him. It comes 
out of the past as a light flashes in the dark¬ 
ness. It is a weeping face and he shudders. 
He is ashamed. He despises himself. He is 
unworthy to look on that face. He is unworthy 
that it should look upon him. She has seen all, 
she knows all. Wretch! wretch am I!” he 
exclaims. 

He remembers when as little children they 
played together. He remembers their long 
years of happy, youthful companionship. He 
remembers her last sickness, and all the prom¬ 
ises he made her, promises which he declared in 


THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 


177 


his tears he would never break, sacred promises 
long ago broken and forgotten. But he remem¬ 
bers them now, they come back to him as he 
looks on that dead face, and he weeps. He will 
be better now. At least he will make a tremen¬ 
dous effort to be better. 

How sweet to us is the face of our dead 
mother! Blessed are they who have their 
mother with them. She is ever to them a fount 
of strength, and hope, and courage. Yet death 
does not destroy wholly her influence over us. 
In some way that influence seems intensified by 
death, rather than weakened. We love her 
more in death. We would do more for her dead 
than living. How gladly now we would answer 
her call! How swiftly we would run to help 
her! How readily we would part with any¬ 
thing to give her a moment’s joy! If we suffer 
any sorrow, it is much more bitter because we 
cannot tell it to her. If we achieve any suc¬ 
cess, it is trifling and of little good because she 
does not share it. If people commend us and 
speak well of us, their words are empty and 
meaningless because she does not hear them. In 
our greatest triumphs, instead of rejoicing, we 
sit down and weep because she is not. To any 


178 SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 

one in whom the love of mother thus survives, 
it is hard to do evil and easy to do good. That 
dead face follows him ever, counseling, advis¬ 
ing, directing, praising or blaming him, en¬ 
couraging or rebuking him, urging him on or 
drawing him back. How could he do aught 
which would bring tears to those dead eyes, or 
which would cloud with a look of pain that dead 
mother’s face! 

Sympathy is said to be two hearts tugging at 
one load. I do not think there is ever any load 
of sorrow placed upon us, but many hearts come 
up from the grave to help us carry it. They 
gather around us in sacred silence, and reach 
out their invisible hands to brush away our 
tears. They whisper comfort, and courage, and 
cheer, when the living pass us by unnoticed. 
The dead know and understand our sorrows 
better than the living, for they always see them 
through our own eyes, and not through strange 
eyes. 

Around every good act which we perform, 
whether it be in the simple utterance of a for¬ 
giving word, or in doing some deed of charity 
or mercy, around such act, aiding and assisting 
us in its performance, many faces of the dead 


THE FACES OF THE DEAD. 


179 


are always gathered. As God and His angels 
come to help us, so do the dead come. And how 
they rejeoice when we win a victory over our 
lower selves, over our prejudice, or our im¬ 
patience, over our pride or our passions; and 
how like God’s angels they turn away in pity 
and sorrow when we do anything wicked or 
wrong. 

You have all, I am sure, some dear ones 
dead. There is not one of you, I am confident, 
who cannot count some dear faces in the silent 
ranks. You should not think of them as being 
far from you, or as uninterested in you, or 
ignorant of what you are doing. Ho, they are 
near to you and are deeply interested in your 
welfare, and cognizant of all you are doing, and 
of all that is taking place in your mind and 
heart. In the dark moment, in the moment of 
gloom and despondency, they are always ready 
with a cheering word. When the tempter whis¬ 
pers evil to you and is stealthily throwing his 
net about you, binding your arm and foot in its 
terrible meshes, they will warn you, will cry to 
you to beware, to keep yourself free, untied to 
any wrong, unpledged to any false purpose. 
And they will never be silent when they ought 


180 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


to speak. And they never mislead you or advise 
you wrongly. You can depend upon them ab¬ 
solutely not to deceive you. They are always 
on the side of good, on the side of right,—al¬ 
ways on God’s side. 

Oh, blessed dead, how kind you are, how 
helpful you are! You are gone from us, but 
you are not lost to us. You have left us, but 
you return again in sweet memory. We feel 
your presence around us. You are with us in 
our temptations and in our trials. You are so 
many guardian angels to us. We are stronger, 
and wiser, and better by reason of your service 
to us. Oh, blessed dead, we will not forget you. 
We will cherish you always in tender remem¬ 
brance. We will go to the graves where you lie 
and will plant them with flowers. We will pray 
for you. Whenever we lift our hearts to God 
in prayer we will think of you. We will ask 
God to be merciful to you. We will ask Him 
to grant you eternal peace. 


XV. 

VICTOEY. 

'T'HE life of Christ was a life of victory. It 
was a series of victories from the cradle to 
the grave. Every act, incident or circumstance, 
great or small, that made up His life, was for 
Him a victory. Everything He laid His hands, 
or His mind, or His heart to, He made a victory 
of. Like an alchemist, He turned all things, 
even the lowliest and the least significant, into 
the pure gold of victory. 

He was totally without sin. Ho stain of 
any evil ever disfigured Him. He always did 
the right thing. He knew the right and never 
wanted the courage to do it. And not only was 
there no evil in Him, but He constantly did 
good. He cheered, He consoled, He helped. 
His delight was to toil for others. He loved 
all and hated none. He even loved those who 
hated and persecuted Him. His words were 


182 SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 

always those of eternal truth. No false deceiv¬ 
ing word ever crossed His lips. He suffered 
pain and sorrow cheerfully. He bore humilia¬ 
tions without complaint. In His desire to help 
others, He forgot Himself. He laid up no for¬ 
tune and made no provision for to-morrow. 

Everything He said, or thought, or did, was 
a victory, and those things which were done 
unto Him by others, He made of them victories 
too. Even when He seemed defeated, He was 
victorious. He was victorious in the garden, 
He was victorious on the cross, and in the 
grave. Lying in the tomb, with the stone rolled 
over Him, and His body cut and mangled with 
wounds, He was victorious, for He rose from 
the dead, and His sacred body shone with light 
and His wounds like the stars of heaven. 

Christ came among us for a definite pur¬ 
pose. He came to redeem our fallen race. He 
accomplished His mission. Nothing could stay 
Him in that work. He shed His blood, He 
gave His life in order to do it. He was vic¬ 
torious, therefore, in the grand purpose of His 
life, as well as in each single act and incident. 

Your faith in Him is a testimony to His 
victories. Every cross that kisses the sky tes- 


VICTORY. 


183 


tifi.es to His victories. Every Christian prayer 
ever uttered, every drop of martyr’s blood, 
every self denying act of the millions of saints 
who have walked in His footsteps, testifies to 
His victories. 

How our lives are noble, and worthy, and 
pleasing before God, in proportion as they are 
filled with victories. And when I say victories, 
I mean such victories as filled the life of Christ. 
There are many things looked upon as victories 
now-a-days, which are far from deserving that 
name. 

It is not victory for the strong to crush the 
weak, and that is true of nations as well as in¬ 
dividuals. Just to conquer and overcome is 
not always to be victorious. Victory is the tri¬ 
umph of right and not the triumph of wrong. 
Victory can come to us only on the wings of 
justice. It is not victory to oppress the poor. 
The rich man can conquer the poor man every 
time. With his wealth, he can force the poor 
man down in the dust on his knees, but that is 
not victory. 

It is not victory to deceive in business, or 
to cheat in buying or selling, or to repudiate 
one’s debts. It is not victory for employers to 


184 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


refuse fair wages and just treatment to their 
employees, nor for the laborer to fail to give 
honest, faithful service to the one who employs 
him. Men sometimes profit by evil doing, by 
lies and misrepresentations, by injustice and 
oppression, by the superior strength and cun¬ 
ning they have over their fellows, but such 
profit is like the profit that comes to the wild 
beast when it leaps upon its prey. It is not 
something to glory in, but something to be 
ashamed of. It is not a victory, hut a defeat. 
The good impulses in us are defeated, and not 
only defeated hut covered with shame. 

Wealth is not victory, nor power, nor fame, 
nor influence. You may have all these and still 
be beaten in the real battles of life. You may 
have all these and still he hated of men and 
accursed of God. If these things be honestly 
acquired and righteously used, they may he 
helpful to great victories, but they are not vic¬ 
tories themselves; at least they are not the vic¬ 
tories which adorned Christ’s life and which 
He commended to us. 

It is not victory to have gorgeous raiment 
and many servants. Houses, and lands, and 
costly jewels do not make one’s life victorious; 


YICTORY. 


185 


neither does pride, nor conceit, nor contempt 
of others, especially of the poor and lowly. We 
sometimes lift ourselves away up with pride, 
and think we stand on a great height and look 
down upon others, but that is not victory. To 
get revenge is not victory, nor to return evil 
for evil, nor to make your neighbor feel the 
anger or hate yon have in your soul for him. 

These are all base deeds and not victories. 
They are low things which drag us down and 
make us like themselves, which defile us when 
we touch them. 

The things which I would call victories are 
these which make us like Jesus Christ. He is 
the true and perfect model, which, if we follow, 
it will be well with us, and our lives will be full 
of victories like His. 

It is victory to put the love of God and the 
hope of heaven above all other things in this 
world. Everything else ends with the grave, 
but God and the soul are forever. Everything 
in life passes quickly but eternity passes never. 
It is a trifling thing what we have for the short 
space of time we will be here, but the things of 
eternity are serious things, for they continue 
always. It is a great victory to recognize this 


186 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


truth, and to fashion our conduct and life by it. 
To observe carefully all one’s religious duties 
and to make sacrifices in order to serve God, 
sacrifices of time, of strength, of patience, of 
whims and desires and cravings, are all vic¬ 
tories. It is victory to kneel in prayer, or to 
offer the homage of your soul to God in devout 
worship. Above all it is victory to love Jesus 
Christ, and to put His life before and above all 
else, and to cherish that love as the most sacred 
and precious thing our hearts can contain. 

It is victory to bear with misfortune and 
trouble patiently. Trouble refines and purifies 
as gold is made pure by fire. We always come 
out of a great sorrow better than we entered it. 
Harrow minds broaden in affliction and shallow 
hearts deepen. We love better and are kinder 
and fairer and more just and quicker to for¬ 
give and slower to condemn, the more we are 
scourged. Sorrow is not altogether a curse. It 
has its blessings, and wonderful blessings which 
can come to us in no other way. Every sorrow 
you accept in the same patient spirit in which 
Jesus accepted sorrow, is for you a blessed vic- 
tory. 


VICTORY. 


187 


It is victory to love all men, and I mean by 
that to feel an interest in all men, to wish all 
men well, to rejoice in their prosperity, and to 
be ready at all times to lend a helping hand, 
should it be needed. It is victory to be kind, 
and gentle, and patient, to comfort, and console, 
and encourage, to be as the beautiful sunlight 
to those around us, diffusing joy, and happi¬ 
ness, and good cheer everywhere. When our 
neighbor falls, it is victory for us to help him 
rise. We rise ourselves by lifting others up. 
It is victory to be charitable to the weak and 
erring. Never condemn with haste. You do 
not know what temptations many unfortunate 
people have to struggle against. Possibly if 
you had the same temptations, you would be 
no better than they are. Only God can judge 
men with justice. 

It is victory to defend your neighbor when 
you hear his good name assailed. Do not be 
your neighbor’s prosecutor; rather be his coun¬ 
selor. If you saw your neighbor’s life threat¬ 
ened you would run to his assistance, and in 
like manner should you hasten to save his good 
name when it is attacked. Most men value 
their good name better than their lives. One’s 


188 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


reputation is the dearest treasure he can pos¬ 
sibly have. For that reason I say deliberately 
that the slanderer and the detractor are in¬ 
cipient murderers. They have the murderous 
instinct in their hearts, and they would destroy 
life only for the fear of punishment. Some¬ 
thing of the savage survives in them, or rather, 
I believe, something of the serpent. Their 
tongues are freighted with poison like the fangs 
of a serpent. The serpent darts its fangs into 
its victim and leaves the poison in the wounds, 
and so these slanderers with their venomous 
tongues pierce and poison human hearts. If 
unfortunately that awful habit has crept into 
the lives of any of you, root it out, no matter 
what the cost; root it out, no matter if you 
have to dig up and mangle the very fibers of 
your heart in doing so. 

Every injury forgiven, every good word 
spoken, every thrill of love or sympathy that 
passes through the heart, every act of charity 
to the poor is a victory. Charity is doubly 
blessed. It blesses him who gives and him who 
receives; and of the two blessings that is by 
far the greater which comes to the one who 
gives. There seems to me to be no greater hap- 


VICTORY. 


189 


piness than, that which comes from doing a good 
turn to one in need. I do not mean that we 
should always give money, rather give strength, 
give courage, give hope, give opportunity. It 
is sometimes good to support the poor, but it is 
always better to so aid them that they may be 
able to support themselves. By helping them 
in that manner, you help to make them strong, 
manly and independent. You do not pauperize 
them. 

It is victory to struggle against passion of 
every kind, against bad habits and wicked in¬ 
clinations. Away down deep in every one of us, 
there is a multitude of evil tendencies, which 
never sleep, which are ever awake and strong, 
and which are constantly dragging us into dark 
and forbidden ways. Ho matter what we do or 
where we go, these evil inclinations follow us, 
and we can not rid ourselves of them except by 
crushing and destroying them. How every 
effort made by us to overcome them is a victory. 
We may not indeed always succeed, but the 
effort alone is a victory. It is not always suc¬ 
cess that God counts as victory, the very trying 
will suffice. “The end, if reached not, makes 
great the life.” 


190 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


Using a common comparison, I might say 
that the true and perfect life, the life without 
any blot or stain, the life that is approved and 
blessed by God and men, that life stands out 
before each of us as a great mountain, and 
every step up its long rising sides is a victory. 
Every wound from thorns and stones, every 
pain endured on that upward march is a vic¬ 
tory. Though you fall by the wayside, the 
struggle to rise is a victory. If death overtakes 
you before you reach the shining summit, God 
will reward you, not so much by the height to 
which you have attained, as by the effort you 
put forth to rise up. God judges us, therefore, 
not entirely by our success, but by the earnest¬ 
ness of our purposes. In His pure sight all 
true striving is success, and therefore is victory. 

Opportunities for winning victories are on 
every side. They are always at hand. Ho 
matter who you are or what your occupation, 
there is no lack of these opportunities. With 
every breath, with every step, with every word, 
with every act, with everything that befalls you 
or that is done unto you, it is possible for you, 
as it was for Jesus Christ, to win victories. You 
can fill your lives with them just as He did. 


VICTORY. 


191 


How beautiful is a victorious life! It is 
fairer than anything else in this world. It is 
fairer than any creation of the human mind, 
or any work of human hands, or any scene that 
the eye may behold on the earth or in the sky. 
It is fairer than anything that fancy or imag¬ 
ination can picture. There is nothing so fair 
outside heaven as a human life full of victories. 

Such a life is humble, and gentle, and noise¬ 
less. It is without any display or clamor. You 
scarcely hear its footsteps or its heart-beats. Its 
virtues are hidden and its victories are covered 
up. But angels follow it and sing its praises 
and build triumphal arches to it on its way and 
cry out to it with sweet angelic voices as it 
passes on, “Victory! Victory!” All heaven is 
watching that simple, humble, beautiful life; 
and angel messengers are going back and forth 
from God to it, and Jesus rejoices, and Mary, 
the Mother, rejoices in the victories of that life. 
Try to lead such a life. It is the only true life; 
any other is false. It is the only beautiful life; 
any other is ugly and mean. A life like that is 
wealth untold; any other is the poorest kind of 
poverty. 


XVI. 

THE GREAT REWARD. 

/^ORRECT living, faithful observance of 
^ duty, adherence to right principles, and 
persistent pursuit of high ideals, never fail to 
bring reward in this life. They may not al¬ 
ways bring comfort and luxury, but they bring 
peace, content and happiness. They keep the 
conscience clear and the heart untroubled by 
base and disturbing emotions. They win for 
us the esteem, confidence and friendship of our 
fellowmen. In the long run they are sure to 
prove stepping stones to such temporal success 
as is worthy of true men. Success which is not 
secured through honest and honorable means 
is not deserving of that name. 

But the reward which comes here and now 
from right living, while sufficient to be cheering 
and encouraging, is not great enough to inspire 
heroic effort or to invite such personal sacrifices 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


193 


as are needed to set aside selfish interests and 
vicious cravings or to keep one’s life untainted 
by any wrong. To those who walk justly and 
wisely with firm faith and trust in God, there 
is a yet greater reward than anything which 
this world can give, a reward such as “eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into 
the heart of man to conceive.” That reward 
is not on this side of life, but on the other side, 
away over the dark valley, on the fair and 
luminous heights beyond, where God and His 
angels dwell. How inspiring, how strengthen¬ 
ing, how encouraging is the thought of heaven! 
It gives a new worth and meaning to life, and 
a new incentive to noble living. It makes every 
moment precious and every act frought with 
eternal consequences. 

Heaven is a word graven deeply on the 
human heart. It is a word indelibly stamped 
on the human mind. It was there when man’s 
heart first began to love, when man’s intellect 
first began to think and to know. It is co-eval 
with human life. Go back as far as you may, 
you will find no nation without a religion, and 
none consequently without belief in immortality 
and future blessedness. Their ideas of happi- 


194 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


ness after death may sometimes have been 
crude and gross, but that fact only emphasizes 
more strongly the deep, firm, original faith 
which the densest ignorance and the darkest 
depravity could not eradicate. Behold man as 
he emerges out of the shadows of primitive 
night! Behold him as he steps forth and is 
seen for the first time in the light of history! 
That sweet word, “Heaven,” is on his lips. He 
carried that word out of paradise with him. 
Yea, rather he carried it with him out of the 
divine presence on the day when God breathed 
into him the breath of life. 

What is heaven? While our conception of 
it is necessarily limited, God has not left us 
without some definite knowledge concerning it. 
Holy scripture alludes frequently to the heaven 
of the just and the hell of the damned. These 
are the two great states which fill up the whole 
future life. They are opposed to each other as 
light to darkness, as heat to cold. The measure 
of the joy of the one is the measure of the 
misery of the other. Estimate the height of 
heaven, and you have the depth of hell. Count 
the thrills of bliss in the one, and you have the 
pangs of pain in the other. In either of these 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


105 


states, every soul must find its final resting 
place. When this world shall have passed away, 
there shall be no other state or condition in 
which souls may subsist. 

The happiness of heaven lies in union with 
God, in being with God and seeing Him. The 
human soul was made not for itself or for any 
earthly purpose, but for God. When God sent 
it forth from Him on the day of its creation, He 
cautioned it, as it were, to come back to Him. 
At the same time He implanted in it a certain 
longing for Him, so that no matter where it 
went or how far it strayed away, it would never 
totally forget Him. A child going out from its 
father’s house gradually loses all love and recol¬ 
lection of home and is soon content to dwell 
among strangers. Hot so with the soul. It may 
fancy sometimes that it can do without God, 
that it can be at peace away from God, that 
delusion may steal upon it and possess it for a 
time, but let death come and rouse it from the 
fatal sleep into which it has fallen, let death 
come and touch it to a realization of what it is 
and what it was destined for in its creation, 
and instantly the feeling arises within it that 
it wants God and that it can never be happy but 


196 SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 

at God’s feet, looking into His sacred face. To 
be away from God is infinite pain for such a 
soul; to be near Him, in His divine presence, 
with a vision unobstructed and a love without 
alloy, is infinite bliss. Seeing God is heaven; 
union with God is heaven. This truth might he 
illustrated by considering the water that rises 
in vapor out of the ocean and floats in clouds 
over the earth. As the vapor rises up, the 
ocean seems to say to it, “You go from 
me, but I warn you to return again, and 
that you may not fail to do so, I will 
impart to you a secret force which shall 
forever impel you to come back to me.” The 
vapor floats away over strange lands and cities, 
it falls in rain on mountains and plains, but 
always obedient to the injunction of mother 
ocean, it leaps in rapid streams down the steep 
gorges and ravines, rushing onward in rock- 
ribbed channels and hurrying away at last in 
great rivers over the prairies to find rest and 
peace again in the bosom of the deep. To be 
at rest and at peace with God, from whom we 
came and to whom we are again returned, is 
heaven. 

Heaven is eternal. Over the gate of paradise 
written in letters of gold is the word, “For- 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


1 


ever.” That word means eternity. Heaven is 
not for a year or an age, but for ages without 
end. It is for eternity. What a priceless joy 
that is! Think of the pleasure of evil doing, if 
pleasure indeed there be in it at all. How 
short lived! It lives but for an instant. It is 
dead e’er scarcely it is born, and it leaves a bit¬ 
terness behind it which is like a thorn in the 
heart. On the other hand, think of the reward 
of virtue. Think of the endless happiness of 
heaven. Peer into the future as far as fancy’s 
eye can penetrate, and it is yet morning in 
heaven. The great sun of God’s glory has just 
risen and the long day of eternity has but be¬ 
gun. 0 eternity, thou art infinite as God. All 
this visible universe shall pass away and leave 
not a wreck behind, but thou wilt be still young, 
young as on the day when the morning stars 
praised God together and the sons of God made 
a joyful melody. 

In heaven there are degrees of happiness, 
proportionate to the merits of each soul. St. 
Paul, speaking of the charity of men says, “He 
that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly, and 
he that soweth abundantly shall reap abundant¬ 
ly.” The same Apostle, explaining the diversity 


193 


SOME INCENTIVES TO BIGHT LIVING. 


of glory with which the good shall be invested 
in the resurrection, compares them to the varied 
splendor of the heavenly bodies. “One,” he 
says, “is the glory of the sun, another is the 
glory of the moon, and another the glory 
of the stars. For star differeth from star in 
glory. So also is the resurrection of the 
dead.” “In my Father’s house,” says St. John, 
“there are many mansions,” meaning no 
doubt mansions of unequal magnificence. St. 
Polycarp, an early Christian martyr, when told 
by the judge what he would suffer if he per¬ 
sisted in refusing to renounce his faith, an¬ 
swered, “I estimate my merit by the amount of 
my sorrow. The more torment I endure, the 
greater shall be my reward.” Those who make 
great sacrifices, therefore, in order to be good, 
who climb the heights of holiness with much 
toil and suffering, shall receive a special recom¬ 
pense. Our works are said to follow us to the 
life to come. They are the only things we will 
take with us out of this world. We shall carry 
them in our arms to our heavenly Father. Bv 
them shall He judge us. By their number and 
their excellence shall He reward us. “Justice 
shall be rendered to every one according to his 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


199 

works.” With the same measure by which we 
measure unto God, shall God measure unto us. 

We sometimes experience joy more or less 
intense in this world, and it may be asked how 
does such joy compare with that experienced in 
heaven. There is no comparison at all, no more 
than there is between dust and diamonds, ex¬ 
cept possibly in this, that the only real happi¬ 
ness there is here below is that which arises 
from an approving conscience, it is that which 
comes from doing good; and heaven might he 
said to be such happiness as that, only multi¬ 
plied, intensified, and magnified beyond meas¬ 
ure. Though similar in kind, they are vastly 
different in degree. So far are they from being 
the same in degree that if all the delights of 
this world were gathered into one soul and 
pressed into one instant of existence, that one 
moment would he no more to a moment in 
heaven than a shadow to its substance. The 
poet Moore has well written, 

“Go wing thy flight from star to star, 

From world to luminous world, as far 
As the universe spreads its flaming wall; 
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres, 

And multiply each through endless years, 

One minute of heaven is worth them all.” 


200 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


Heaven is not for everybody. It may be 
for the few, though we hope not. One thing is 
certain and that is, it is exclusively for the 
holy. Heaven is in God’s presence and noth¬ 
ing defiled can enter there. The holiness of 
God is beyond our comprehension. The vaulted 
skies are not higher above the hills than is God’s 
holiness above that of the purest saint this world 
has ever seen. How, sin is opposed to holiness. 
It is not merely the absence of it, but the pres¬ 
ence of something the very opposite to it. They 
cannot, therefore, subsist together any more 
than darkness can subsist in light, or frost in a 
glowing furnace. Supposing a reprobate soul 
were admitted to heaven, something impossible, 
but which may be imagined, what would be the 
result? Would it be happy there? Hot at all. 
Would it desire to remain there? Ho, a repro¬ 
bate soul is unholy, it is black with sin. Its 
thoughts, its purposes are evil. Place such a 
soul in heaven and it would shudder beneath 
God’s piercing glance. It would start back and 
try to hide itself from Him. It would shrink 
from contact with the just. Overpowered by a 
sense of shame, it would clamor for the outer 
darkness. A reprobate soul in heaven would be 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


201 


like a wild beast in a populous city. It could 
find no joy in the glowing lights, the marble 
walks and stately palaces. It would rather 
tremble with fear, and rushing off, seek again 
its desert wilds. Heaven is for the pure, the 
holy. Nothing defiled can enter there. 

In our transition from earth to heaven we 
shall undergo no substantial change; that is, we 
shall not be changed substantially from what 
we are. We shall be the same persons we are 
now, only glorified in body and purified in soul. 
The dense cloud of ignorance which surrounds 
us here will be swept away, and the horizon of 
the intellect enlarged. The mysteries of life 
will then be understood and many of the mys¬ 
teries of God. The perversity of our minds 
will be corrected. In sin we shall no longer 
have any part. Divine grace will compass us 
like a wall of stone, so that no temptation can 
reach us. Our affections, too, will be refined. 
They will be stripped of their grossness and 
made to love only the good. In heaven we shall 
remember our trials on earth, our struggles with 
passion, our battles with Satan. The scars of 
these conflicts will remain with us, and we shall 
look upon them with delight. They will be 


202 


SOME INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING. 


our shining jewels. Loved ones whom we left 
behind, we shall still cherish in sweet memory. 
We will look down upon them as from a great 
height and will watch over them and frequently 
pray for them. We may even long for them to 
come to us. It may be that standing on heav¬ 
en’s white walls, we will look out often to see if 
they are coming, and when at last their spirits 
sweep towards us like beams of morning light, 
we will know them as our own and will rejoice 
in their company even as upon earth. What a 
comfort that is, especially in the hour of death! 
Some one dear to you is dying. You bend in 
sorrow over his pale wasted face. You wipe 
tenderly the cold sweat from his brow. You 
notice his breathing growing fainter and 
fainter. You look through your tears down into 
those staring, vacant eyes, from which the light 
is fast going. You whisper in broken tones, 
“Goodbye, farewell, farewell, forever.” You 
turn away disconsolate, heart-broken. What a 
joy to know in that sad moment that 

“ Beyond this parting there will be a meeting, 
Beyond this farewell there will be a greeting.” 

Yes, the pure of heart who have lived and 
loved on earth, will live and love in heaven, 


THE GREAT REWARD. 


203 


where no cloud will ever darken their days and 
no distance or death ever separate them. 

Such is heaven. Such is the beautiful home 
that awaits us beyond the skies. Such is the 
splendid glittering mansion that has been built 
for us on the bright mountain beyond the valley 
of death. Angels watch at its gates and guard 
its jeweled walls. I am sure it is your wish, 
your hope, some day to dwell there, some day 
to see its light and taste of its joys. Well, re¬ 
member that heaven lies in union with God, and 
that if you desire to be united to God in the 
world to come, you must live united to Him in 
this world. And union with God in this world 
means union with goodness, and justice, and 
truth; it means pure thoughts, high motives, 
and honest, upright actions; it means living 
soberly, justly and piously; it means being a 
slave to what is right, no matter what the cost 
may be or what the trouble. 

We are sowing now and shall reap in the 
long hereafter. As we sow, so shall we reap. 
Good seed will give a harvest of joy, bad seed a 
harvest of pain. Look well to it that the seed 
you scatter in life is the best that the mind and 
heart can furnish. 













































































































































































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